Located at the opposite end of the Croisette, the Critics’ Week section typically showcases just under a dozen feature films heavy on Caméra d’Or hopefuls. This selection usually includes seven films in competition, along with three to four Special Screenings (opening and closing films). Now in her fourth year leading the section, Critics’ Week topper Ava Cahen continues to steer her caffeinated program with true cheerleader enthusiasm and vision. Last year’s edition highlighted notable works like Jonathan Millet’s opening film Les Fantômes, as well as two standout dramas currently in theaters: Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace and Leonardo Van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet. Looking ahead, we anticipate a strong focus on French cinema in this year’s lineup. Below, we’ve compiled a list of thirteen films that we believe could be an excellent fit for Critics’ Week’s 64th edition and make sure to come back next week as we prognosticate on the films that might populate the Director’s Fortnight, Un Certain Regard, the Out of Competitions/Special Screenings/Cannes Premiere sections and of course, the Main Competition.
Adieu monde cruel
Félix de Givry
Producers: Iliade & Films’Manon Messiant, Remembers’ Félix de Givry and Ugo Bienvenu.
World Sales: Playtime
If the name looks familiar it’s because Mia Hansen-Løve introduced him as an actor with Something in the Air (2012), and mainly in Eden (2014). After some producing and writing gigs, Félix de Givry moved onto his feature debut with a cast comprised of Milo Machado-Graner — the child actor from Anatomy of a Fall.
Adieu monde cruel follows 14-year-old Otto who pens a suicide letter to his family and classmates but he ultimately fails in his attempt. He goes into hiding, too ashamed to return home and, by night, he haunts the streets of his town, like a ghost. Until Léna, a girl from his high school, recognizes him. Production took place last August. Jane Beever, Emmanuelle Destremau, Maïa Sandoz and Erwan Kepoa Falé complete the youth portrait.
Martin Jauvat
Producers: Ecce Films’ Emmanuel Chaumet.
World Sales: Le Pacte
His debut film Grand Paris was selected in ACID section back in 2022, and he quickly mounted his sophomore project this past May. Martin Jauvat once again pulls double duty again of acting and directing in Baise-en-ville and he managed to lasso the not too shabby cast of Emmanuelle Bercot, William Lebghil, Sébastien Chassagne with several supporting players including Géraldine Pailhas and Michel Hazanavicius.
This is about Sprite, a 20-year-old young adult who returns home to Chelles following a break-up. In order to pay for his driving licence and satisfy his parents, he joins the ranks of Allo Nettoyo, a night-time cleaning start-up in the Paris region. Unable to get around the city without his licence, he adopts his driving instructor’s “baise-en-ville” technique, which involves spending the night at the homes of girls he meets on an app. But Sprite struggles with this new approach to seduction. The comedy was supported by the Gan Film Foundation.
Dites-lui que je l’aime
Romane Bohringer
Producers: Escazal Films’ Sophie Révil and Denis Carot.
World Sales: Kinology
Veteran actress Romane Bohringer came into her sophomore feature with a huge wave of support after her debut, 2018 film L’amour flou was nominated for the prestigious Louis Delluc Prize for Best Debut Film. She moved into production on Dites-lui que je l’aime this May – she toplines the film and is re-teamed with actress Clémentine Autain centered on Romane who decides to adapt Clémentine Autain’s book about her mother for the cinema. This project will force her to confront her past and her own mother who abandoned her when she was nine months old. Sounds awfully meta this project.
Forastera
Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
Producers: Marta Cruañas, Bàrbara Ferrer, Olivier Guerpillon, Francesc Mulet, Marta Reguera, Lastor Media’s Tono Folguera, Vilaüt Films’ Ariadna Dot.
World Sales: TBD.
Spanish filmmaker Lucía Aleñar Iglesias could be returning to the Critics’ Week once again with her expanded short. Presented as a 2020 selection, she moved into her debut feature Forastera this past April in Mallorca. Starring Lluís Homar, Zoe Stein and Nonni Ardal, this is about a woman whose vacation is dramatically disrupted by the violent death of her grandmother, an act to which she is the only witness. Note that she developed the project as part of the Critics’ Week Residency programme Next Step and the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency.
Gorgonà
Evi Kalogiropoulou
Producers: Nedafilm, Blue Monday.
World Sales: Playtime
Formerly titled Cora, there has already been a ton of support for Evi Kalogiropoulo‘s feature debut. Gorgonà got some support from the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Cannes Atelier Cinéfondation in 2021 and Next Step Programme the year after.
Filming on the debut took place this past summer – it features Melissanthi Mahut and Aurora Marion and is set around an oil refinery, where Maria refuses to settle for the position allocated to her, choosing instead to compete with men to become the leader of the gang. The arrival of striking singer Eleni changes the game and brings Maria closer to her mystical powers. Kalogiropoulo’s shorts Motorway 65 (2020) and On Herxes’ Throne (2022) were both selected for the Croisette.
Grand Ciel
Akihiro Hata
Producers: Good Fortune Films’ Clément Duboin.
World Sales: WTFilms
After making waves with his short films at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, Akihiro Hata moved into production on his feature debut this past March with the likes Damien Bonnard, Samir Guesmi and Mouna Soualem for a tale that follows Vincent who works the night shift on the Grand Ciel building site, which is set to be a futuristic district. When a worker disappears, Vincent and his colleagues suspect the team leader of hiding the body somewhere on site. But Vincent is soon party to strange manifestations, and another worker disappears.
Grand Ciel has some major clout behind the lines with Bi Gan Cinematographer (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) David Chizallet and Film Editor Suzana Pedro in onboard here. As of late, she has had several of her films have been selected for the section in the recent past in from Olga to Love According to Dalva, Ama Gloria, and The Rapture.
Josephine
Beth de Araújo
Producers: Animal Kingdom’s David Kaplan, Beth de Araújo.
World Sales: TBD.
An American indie drama that we thought might break into Sundance, Gemma Chan, Channing Tatum and Philip Ettinger in Brazilian-American filmmaker Beth de Araújo‘s sophomore feature – her micro-indie debut Soft & Quiet was selected for SXSW in 2022. Shot in April in San Francisco, after witnessing a brutal attack in Golden Gate Park, eight-year-old Josephine is plunged into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. She acts out with increasing violence looking for any way to regain control of her own safety. Josephine was workshopped at the 2018 Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Directing labs.
L’engloutie
Louise Hémon
Producers: Take Shelter’s Margaux Juvénal and Alexis Genauzeau
World Sales: Kinology
Working in the experimental, docu and music video form, production on Louise Hémon‘s debut took place in January of 2024 in the backdrop of Hautes Alpes. Galatea Bellugi, Matthieu Lucci, Samuel Kircher and Sharif Andoura star in a tale that takes place all the way back in 1899. Soudain is a hamlet surrounded by snow on the high plateaus of a remote mountain. Its inhabitants see Aimée, a young Republican schoolteacher, arrive one stormy night, staying for the winter to teach a handful of children. But as she gradually blends into the life of the community, an avalanche engulfs the first mountaineer…Written with Anaïs Tellenne and Maxence Stamatiadis, L’engloutie (The Girl Under The Snow) was supported by the Groupe Ouest Film Lab group.
The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo
Diego Céspedes
Producers: Quijote Films’ Giancarlo Nasi.
World Sales: TBD.
A project that has been long in the works and was developed at the 38th Cinéfondation Cannes’ The Residence, Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes finally moved into production this past May. The LGBTQ-themed The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo is a drama is set in a mining town in 1984 in which a girl fights against rumours of a disease said to be spread by gay men through their gaze. In 2018 his short film The Summer of the Electric Lion won the Cinéfondation First Prize at Cannes Film Festival. Alfredo Castro Leads the cast here
Paradise
Jérémy Comte
Producers: Entract Studios’ Tim Ringuette, EMAfilms’ Anne-Marie Gelinas, Constellation Productions’ Westerhoff.
World Sales: Film Constellation
A project we’ve been keeping tabs on ever since being introduced to his Oscar-nominated for Best Live Action Short Film short for his 2018 masterstroke ‘Fauve,’ Jérémy Comte shot in his backyard Quebec and Ghana for a tale that begins in the wake of a father’s disappearance at sea, Kojo, a young Ghanaian is drawn into a world of street gang and deception. Meanwhile, in Quebec, Tony discovers his mother’s relationship with a mysterious sailor who may hold the key to finding the father he’s never met.
Paradise, a dramatic thriller, moved into production in February of 2024. Newcomers Joey Boivin-Desmeules and Daniel Atsu Hukporti topline. The score was written by by Valentin Hadjadj from Lukas Dhont’s Girl and Close.
Partir un jour
Amélie Bonnin
Producers: Topshot Films’ Robin Robles, Arthur Goisset and Bastien Daret.
World Sales: Pathé.
Back in June, Amélie Bonnin set off on her feature debut adapting from her 2023 César Award for Best Short Fiction Film. After graduating from high school, Julien left his hometown to build a bigger life in the capital, leaving his memories behind. And then one day, he had to come back, and that day his memories jumped out at him from between two packets of Pépito cookies. Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, François Rollin, Dominique Blanc and Tewfik Jallab populate Partir un jour which is set for a June domestic release in France.
Titanic Ocean
Konstantina Kotzamani
Producers: Maria Drandaki, Nina Frese, Radu Stancu, Birgit Kemner, Luisa Romeo, Konishi Keisuke, Hiroto Ogi.
World Sales: TBD.
Konstantina Kotzamani‘s short (Limbo) premiered in the Critics’ Week section in 2016, and from there her feature film was supported by CineMart, Torino Film Lab, Oxbelly, Venice and the Critics’ Week Next Step programme. Titanic Ocean is the scintillating tale of the teenage universe of a special boarding school that trains teenage girls into professional mermaids, 17-year-old Akame will find her siren voice, discover first love and experience a metamorphosis.
Vultures
Peter Dourountzis
Producers: 24 25 Films’ Thibault Gast and Matthias Weber, Oriflamme Films’ Christophe Delsaux.
World Sales: Ginger & Fred
Parisian born filmmaker Peter Dourountzis saw his feature debut Vaurien get selected for the Cannes Label edition (the pandemic canceled 2020 edition), but we think he might be on the Croisette for the first time with his sophomore feature. Sami Bouajila, Mallory Wanecque, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Valérie Donzelli, Andréa Bescond and Stefan Crepon star in Vultures – which centers on a father and his daughter; Samuel, a journalist, and Ava, his intern, are covering the murder of a young girl attacked by acid for their magazine. Hit by the brutality of this murder, as well as by his daughter’s curiosity about the case, Samuel decides to lead an independent investigation, unknown to his editor, and discovers troubling similarities with the murder of another woman.
