Predicting the Cannes Film Festival lineup is always a tricky feat. Some films you’d expect to see on the Croisette — and we expected many that didn’t make the cut Thursday morning — either aren’t ready or decided to go the way of the fall festivals.
Or worse, Thierry Frémaux and his team just didn’t go for them. The festival programmers looked at a record 2,909 feature submissions this year, spreading out selections across the main competition, Un Certain Regard, and the non-competitive sections. More official selection films will be announced, he said. So any of the below snubs could change, and IndieWire understands the festival hasn’t screened all the possibilities just yet.
Internationally beloved auteurs and surefires hauling new work to Cannes this year include Ari Aster (“Eddington,” putting him in the Cannes competition for the first time), Kelly Reichardt (“The Mastermind”), Richard Linklater (“Nouvelle Vague”), Wes Anderson (“The Phoenician Scheme”), Jafar Panahi (“A Simple Accident,” made in secret by the dissident Iranian director), past Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau (“Alpha”), the Dardennes (“Young Mothers”), and Joachim Trier (“Sentimental Value”).
But a few we’d pegged as sure bets were no-shows during the April 10 unveiling.
Not showing up among the six female directors in competition this year, so far, was Lynne Ramsay with “Die, My Love,” a supposed horror-comedy that would bring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson to the glittery Palais red carpet. All of Ramsay’s films have premiered at Cannes, including her last feature, 2017’s “You Were Never Really Here,” which won the Screenplay prize. The strike-delayed shoot on “Die, My Love” wrapped in Canada in fall 2024, so you’d think this in theory should’ve been ready for Cannes by now.
Fremaux touted the six women directors in the competition Thursday morning; Ramsay could’ve been a seventh pick, and if she were part of the competition at some point, you’d think he’d want to up that much-scrutinized stat right now.
Another film that would make for a buzzy Cannes red carpet is Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” an English-language reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” and starring Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky. The A24-Apple partnership wrapped filming in New York, with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, last summer. Lee won the Grand Jury Prize for “BlacKkKlansman” in 2018 and served as jury president in 2021. What gives? This could still pop as an out-of-competition (or even in-competition) title later — or it’s heading to fall festivals. But we’re still confident it shows up at Cannes, the now-proven first stop for awards season hopes.
No one should’ve bet money, anyway, on Terrence Malick finishing his long-spinning “The Way of the Wind,” a biblical epic about the life of Jesus he’s been reportedly editing for six years. (According to a Film Stage report, he’s started farming out editing duties to his own cast.) Cannes has mostly ignored his late-career output, except for 2011 Palme d’Or winner “The Tree of Life” and 2019 Palme nominee “A Hidden Life.” “The Way of the Wind” may not happen again, again — though rumors continue to swirl that it could show up in the lineup later.
Speaking of movies potentially not done, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (Un Certain Regard, 2018) Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan’s “Resurrection,” another format-experimenting epic, didn’t show up anywhere in the lineup. IndieWire hears that Bi is still finishing up the long-in-production sci-fi mystery.
Where’s South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook‘s “No Other Choice,” a dark comedy (and adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel “The Ax”) starring “Squid Game” baddie Lee Byung-hun? Production didn’t wrap until January on the latest from the “Decision to Leave” Cannes best director winner, making the festival deadline a challenging horizon. Park’s most recent project was the acclaimed Vietnam War espionage series “The Sympathizer,” which premiered on HBO in spring 2024.
Meanwhile, Jim Jarmusch’s “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother” would bring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver to the Palais carpet, but the film wasn’t announced on Thursday as part of any lineup. Filming wrapped well over a year ago on the anthology comedy-drama about estranged siblings reuniting, with stories shot in New Jersey, Paris, and Dublin. Jarmusch is a Cannes mainstay, with “The Dead Don’t Die” opening the festival and in competition in 2019. Don’t count him out for a late-breaking announcement.
Looks like we’ll have to wait until Venice, Telluride, and Toronto for films from László Nemes (“Orphan”), Karim Aïnouz (“Rosebush Pruning”), Kogonada (“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” set for a September Sony Pictures release anyway), Nadav Lapid (“Yes!”), and Alice Winocour (“Couture” with Angelina Jolie). Not in the Cannes lineup after wrapping in Latvia and Malta last summer was Kristen Stewart’s feature directing debut “The Chronology of Water,” previously speculated as a Sundance 2025 possibility.
A few surprises: nothing yet on Arnaud Desplechin’s “An Affair,” though the French director is a Cannes perennial. Meanwhile, the post-Holocaust drama “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,” from Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, settled for a Cannes Premiere out-of-competition spot. Serebrennikov’s films always premiere in competition, from “Petrov’s Flu” to last year’s “Limonov,” though reception to that political biopic was lukewarm. Not on most radars, meanwhile, was Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s musical “The Wave,” inspired by the 2018 feminist protests that erupted in his country. That also plays out of competition in Cannes Premiere.
One film to keep an eye on for early competition awards predictions: Jafar Panahi’s “A Simple Accident.” Fremaux’s announcement included the first title reveal for the Iranian dissident filmmaker’s made-in-secret new film that we know nothing about (and likely for legal reasons). His 2018 “3 Faces” was up for the Palme d’Or and won the best screenplay prize that year after several features in other sections: “Crimson Gold” in 2003’s Un Certain Regard and “The White Balloon” in 1995, which won the Camera d’Or.
The director’s personal narrative aligns him with last year’s competition filmmaker, Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” winner of a special jury prize before receiving an Oscar nomination via co-producer Germany), who was ultimately able to attend the 2024 festival after fleeing his country. Panahi has faced legal battles for years; he was arrested and then freed in 2022 amid a hunger strike while in incarceration for his protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran. He had been previously banned from filmmaking or from leaving Iran. He’s been out of his country since 2023, whereabouts unknown, after his travel embargo was lifted. Hopefully, he can make his way to the festival in person.
