There’s no business like show business. And there’s no place in the world where the film industry shines more brightly than the seaside town of Cannes on the French Riviera. For a week in May, the annual glitzy film festival coats the Côte d’Azur in a wash of glamour. The red carpet flanking the beachy Boulevard de la Croisette plays host to some of the most memorable fashion moments to occur offscreen. (Bella Hadid’s anatomical lung Schiaparelli dress! Natalie Portman in a recreation of Christian Dior’s archival ‘Junon’ haute couture gown!) But it’s truly the films in competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or that established the Cannes Film Festival as the pinnacle of premieres.
In 2024, the yearly event returns for its 77th iteration. Hosted from May 14 to May 25, seasoned veterans like Francis Ford Coppola and independent auteurs like Yogos Lanthimos will descend on the ritzy town to introduce a robust lineup of releases. Australian film legend George Miller will unveil the latest edition in his Mad Max franchise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, with the film’s Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth articulating the latest post-apocalyptic epic in a suite of playa-inspired fashion choices, no doubt.
Incumbent ‘Best Actress’ Oscar winner, Emma Stone, will acquaint the world with her latest creative partnership with Lanthimos, Kinds Of Kindness. Closer to home, Jacob Elordi will make his Cannes Film Festival debut as a Vietnam War draft evader turned documentarian in Oh, Canada. His Saltburn co-star, Barry Keoghan, will also be present to reveal his latest project, the Andrea Arnold-directed Bird.
If you happen to find yourself in town next month, make it mandatory on your itinerary to attend at least one of these film screenings. But with over 20 movies in the competition category alone, it’s a lot of hours to spend indulging in the beauty of cinema. To cut through the static, GRAZIA has compiled a useful guide to the must-see releases coming out of the Cannes Film Festival. With launches you’ll be immediately adding to your Letterboxd ‘Watchlist’, to films you’ll look forward to rewatching in your local cinema, keep scrolling below for the most notable movies to follow from the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
The Films To Follow from The 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Industry legend George Miller returns to the visceral wasteland desert he conceived 45 years ago with the release of the franchise’s fifth instalment, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The latest edition sees Anya Taylor-Joy star as a young Furisoa in a prequel to Charlize Theron’s portrayal in Mad Max: Fury Road. Set twenty years before the events of the 2015 film, Furiosa contextualises her origin story by giving an in-depth look at her life on the run following her abduction from her homeland, “The Green Place”.
It’s understood the plot will show us how Furiosa came to be the duplicitous ‘Imperator’, with Chris Hemsworth starring as the antagonistic Warlord Dementus. Model Charlee Fraser, who made her on-screen debut in Anyone But You across from Sydney Sweeney, will also appear in a supporting role. The film was shot on location in Australian towns over several months in 2022, with Furiosa breaking the record for the biggest Australian production yet, fueling over $233M to the economy. Miller tapped a host of local talent to make the movie, too, ensuring Furiosa was embedded with a uniquely regional quality.
Kinds Of Kindness
After sweeping the awards circuit with Poor Things, Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are already back to deliver cinephiles’ new favourite surrealist black comedy with Kinds Of Kindness. Filming took place over a short span of eight weeks towards the end of 2022 and will follow an unconventional narrative structure. It’s being dubbed a “triptych fable”, meaning that three distinct and (presumably) unconnected storylines will be presented in tandem.
According to the logline, segments will include “a man without choice who tries to take control of his life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing at sea has returned and seems to be a different person; and a woman who is determined to find a specific someone destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.”
Roles haven’t been assigned to the star-studded cast, but based on the visual language of the trailer, hints at who plays who can be deciphered. Joining Stone is Jesse Plemons, Poor Things co-star Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn and The Whale breakout star, Hong Chau. The cast may also take on new characters for each act, meaning the film will serve as an unconventional anthology series in feature-length form.
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola—whom some of you will know as Sofia Coppola’s dad, while others recognise him as the director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now—will end his 13-year hiatus with the release of Megalopolis. The film was conceived back in the 1970s, but suffered in development limbo for decades, leading Coppola to part with $120 million of his own fortune to fund the production. An ensemble cast, including Adam Driver, Game Of Thrones alumni Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf, will portray a band of New Yorkers looking to rebuild the city following a disastrous event of dystopian proportions.
The Shrouds
The patron saint of body horror, David Cronenberg, will return to the Cannes Film Festival with his latest release, The Shrouds. Starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce, the film will follow a grieving widower, who builds an innovative device to help people connect with the dead. It’s been dubbed Cronenberg’s most “personal” film to date, but with his past works exploring intimacy in the most graphic sense, how the 81-year-old filmmaker embodies this remains to be seen.
Horizon: An American Saga
If Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” didn’t have you feeling country, Kevin Costner’s western epic, Horizon: An American Saga, certainly will. The first instalment of the reported four-part project stars Sienna Miller (in her first public appearance since welcoming her baby girl!), Sam Worthington and Jena Malone. Speaking on debuting the film, the Yellowstar alumni said, “It’s been 20 years since I’ve had the pleasure of being on the Croisette. I’ve been waiting for the right time to return and I’m proud to say that this time has come.”
Oh, Canada
Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi star as Leonard Fife, a tormented Vietnam War evader who fled to the Great White North to escape conscription, in Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada. With Schrader’s credits including co-writing Taxi Driver and Raging Bull with Martin Scorcese, it’s apparent the sensitive material will be explored with the deft hand of an adept filmmaker. Interestingly, both Elordi and Gere share a common thread with their ex-partners. As you’ll recall, Gere was previously married to supermodel Cindy Crawford in the early 90s, while Elordi dated her daughter, Kaia Gerber for a little over a year.
Emilia Perez
In a surprising turn, Selena Gomez will return to the silver screen in the musical-crime-comedy Emilia Perez. As per Variety, the film will follow up-and-coming trans actor, Karla Sofía Gascón, as a “feared, on-the-run Mexican cartel leader who has a sex change to get away from the law and become the woman he’s always wanted to be.” The film was shot in Paris over the summer of 2023, with French luxuriate Saint Laurent onboard as a production partner. (Saint Laurent Productions is also producing The Shrouds and Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope).
The Substance
Margaret Qualley will pull double duty on the Croisette, promoting both Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness and the upcoming body horror, The Substance. Qualley stars across from Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid in the first studio feature for French filmmaker, Coralie Fargeat. (Fargeat also wrote the script). The film is said to be taking a feminist slant on the biological genre. Sign us up!
Bird
Andrea Arnold (American Honey) has picked up the camera in over a decade to probe the fringes of UK society in Bird. Barry Keoghan helms the film as a tattooed, deadbeat father raising two sons in the South East county, Kent.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA International.