Cannes 2021 line-up guide: Competition and Out Of Competition titles

Competition 

Ahed’s Knee (Fr-Isr)

Dir. Nadav Lapid
Israeli director Lapid’s first Cannes Competition entry follows a filmmaker who travels to a remote village in the Arava desert valley in southern Israel for a screening. There, he finds himself fighting two losing battles — one against the death of freedom in his country, the other against the death of his mother. Lapid, who won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear in 2019 for Synonyms, has a long relationship with Cannes. Early shorts Border Project and Emile’s Girlfriend screened in the Cinefondation selection in 2004 and 2006 respectively, and he subsequently participated in the residency programme while developing his debut feature The Policeman. His second fiction feature The Kindergarten Teacher debuted in Critics’ Week in 2014. 
Contact: Grégoire Melin, Kinology 

Annette (Fr)

Dir. Leos Carax
Leftfield pop legends Sparks narrowly missed working with Jacques Tati in the 1970s but their cinematic hour has come at last. As well as featuring in Edgar Wright’s documentary The Sparks Brothers, Ron and Russell Mael have co-written the hotly awaited musical by elusive auteur Carax, his follow-up to 2012 Competition title Holy Motors. Annette, which is about a singer, a comedian and their baby, stars Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, and is produced by Charles Gillibert.
Contact: Grégoire Melin, Kinology

Benedetta (Fr-Neth-Bel)

Dir. Paul Verhoeven
Dutch director Verhoeven returns to the Croisette with his second French-language feature after comeback film Elle, which played in Competition in 2016 and went on to secure a best actress Oscar nomination for Isabelle Huppert. Benedetta reunites the director with Elle actress Virginie Efira in the role of a controversial 17th-century Italian nun and is adapted from Judith C Brown’s academic work Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy. Verhoeven first competed at Cannes in 1992 with Basic Instinct.
Contact: Pathé International 

Bergman Island (Fr-Bel-Swe-Ger)

Dir. Mia Hansen-Love
French writer/director Hansen-Love is not the Cannes regular you might think, notwithstanding a 2009 special jury prize for Un Certain Regard title Father Of My Children. She makes her Competition debut with an English-language drama starring Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps as a couple visiting the Swedish island of Faro on a cinephile homage to Ingmar Bergman. Co-starring Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie, it marks an official selection double for producer Charles Gillibert, also in Competition with Annette. MUBI has UK rights.
Contact: Grégoire Melin, Kinology 

Casablanca Beats (Mor-Fr)

Dir. Nabil Ayouch
Moroccan-French director Ayouch’s Cannes credentials include 2012 Un Certain Regard title Horses Of God and 2015 Directors’ Fortnight selection Much Loved. His debut Competition entry has strong connections with Horses Of God, which was adapted from Mahi Binebine’s novel about disenfranchised youth from Casablanca’s Sidi Moumen slum district who perpetrated a series of suicide attacks across the city in 2007. The incident prompted Ayouch and Binebine to set up a cultural centre in the neighbourhood in 2014. This film is inspired by one of its workshops encouraging youngsters to express themselves through hip-hop music and dance.
Contact: Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International 

Compartment No. 6 (Fin-Ger-Est-Rus)

Dir. Juho Kuosmanen
Kuosmanen’s second feature follows a young Finnish woman (Seidi Haarla) and a misanthropic Russian miner (Yuriy Borisov) as they share a journey along the Soviet Union’s trans-Siberian railway in the 1980s. The Finnish director makes his first appearance in Competition after he won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2016 with his black-and-white debut feature The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki. Kuosmanen also picked up the Cinefondation prize in 2010 with short The Painting Sellers. All three of his films have been produced by Jussi Rantamäki of Aamu Film Company.
Contact: Totem Films

The Divide (Fr)

Dir. Catherine Corsini
In The Divide (or La Fracture, as the film is titled in France), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Marina Foïs play a couple in crisis who wind up in casualty after getting caught up in a demonstration that turns violent; tensions mount as other angry and injured protesters pour into the hospital. Corsini was last at Cannes in 2012 with Un Certain Regard entry Three Worlds and previously played in Competition in 2001 with Replay. Her more recent films Summertime and An Impossible Love premiered in Locarno and Rotterdam respectively.
Contact: Grégoire Melin, Kinology 

Drive My Car (Jap)

Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
A few months after winning the Berlinale’s Silver Bear grand jury prize for Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy, Hamaguchi is in the spotlight again, returning to Cannes with this adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story. Hidetoshi Nishijima (Creepy) plays a stage actor/director who forms a bond with a young female chauffeur assigned to drive him around during a theatre festival. Hamaguchi was last in Competition at Cannes with 2018 romantic drama Asako I & II. He also co-wrote Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2020 Venice Silver Lion winner Wife Of A Spy.
Contact: The Match Factory  

Everything Went Fine (Fr)

Dir. Francois Ozon
Ozon pays tribute to late collaborator and writer Emmanuele Bernheim with this adaptation of her novel about a woman whose father asks for help to die. Filmmaker Alain Cavalier also planned an adaptation, with Bernheim and himself in the main roles, but when the writer was diagnosed with cancer the project developed into the 2019 documentary Living And Knowing You’re Alive. This is Ozon’s sixth time in official selection — counting Summer Of 85 which was feted with a 2020 Cannes label — and fourth in Competition, although he has never won the Palme d’Or.
Contact: Playtime 

Flag Day (US)

Dir. Sean Penn
MGM has North American rights to Penn’s latest directorial outing, which premieres 30 years after The Indian Runner— his debut behind the camera — played in Cannes. A North American theatrical release and potential awards run are planned later this year on the drama, based on a true story of a woman who comes of age while navigating a fraught relationship with her conman father. Penn directs himself opposite his daughter Dylan Penn. Josh Brolin, Eddie Marsan and Katheryn Winnick also star.
Contacts: Rocket Science; Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International; CAA 

France (Fr)

Dir. Bruno Dumont
You never know what to expect from mercurial Cannes perennial Dumont. Having started as a hardcore doomster (The Life Of Jesus), he has since blindsided viewers with historical musicals (Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc) and outré comedies such as his 2016 Competition entry Slack Bay. His latest, previously titled On A Half-Clear Morning, stars Léa Seydoux (one of four Cannes appearances) as a celebrity journalist in crisis. Regular producers Rachid Bouchareb, Jean Bréhat and Muriel Merlin are on board for 3B Productions.
Contact: Indie Sales

The French Dispatch (US)

Dir. Wes Anderson
Anderson brings his latest ensemble to the Croisette after last year’s invitation was scuppered by the pandemic. The French resident will attend, most likely with Tilda Swinton who also has Memoria in Competition, although it would be a stretch to expect the wider US contingent to gather en masse. The story of the staff at an American publication in a fictitious French town also stars Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Timothée Chalamet and Owen Wilson. Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom premiered at the festival in 2012. The French Dispatch opens in the US on October 22 and is expected to launch the same month in France and the UK.
Contact: Searchlight Pictures

A Hero (Iran-Fr)

Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Iranian filmmaker Farhadi has world premiered The Past, The Salesman and Spanish-language drama Everybody Knows in Competition. He won the prize of the ecumenical jury for The Past and best screenplay for The Salesman but has yet to clinch the Palme d’Or. Details around the plot and cast were under wraps — his ninth film and fourth Competition title — ahead of its world premiere, although like all of Farhardi’s Iran-set features to date, it will tackle issues of modern Iranian society.
Contact: Memento International 

Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (Bel-Fr-Ger-Chad)

Dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Since his debut feature Bye Bye Africa premiered at Venice in 1999, Haroun has been a regular on the festival circuit. His follow-up Our Father played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2002, Screaming Man won the Cannes jury prize in 2011 and Grigris played Competition in 2013. Lingui, the story of an ostracised Chad woman whose daughter becomes pregnant following rape, is produced by Cologne’s Made In Germany Filmproduktion, France’s Pili Films, Chad’s Goï Goï Productions and Belgium’s Beluga Tree.
Contact: Films Boutique

Memoria (Col-Thai-UK-Mex-Fr-Ger-Qat)

Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cannes regular Apichatpong, whose Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d’Or in 2010, returns to the Croisette with a Bogota-set film starring Tilda Swinton, Elkin Diaz and Jeanne Balibar. The film’s enigmatic logline — referencing a bang, mountains, tunnel and a river — gives little away about the film’s storyline. Memoria is a Kick The Machine Films and Burning production in association with Illuminations Films (Uncle Boonmee) and in co-production with multiple international partners. Apichatpong is also in Cannes this year with Special Screening portmanteau The Year Of The Everlasting Storm.
Contact: The Match Factory 

Nitram (Australia)

Dir. Justin Kurzel
Marking the first Australian film in Competition for a decade (since Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty in 2011), Nitram depicts the events leading up to one of Tasmania’s worst-ever mass shootings and is centred on a lone gunman, played by US actor Caleb Landry Jones. Kurzel was previously in Competition in 2015 with Macbeth, while his debut feature Snowtown played in Critics’ Week in 2011. Writer Shaun Grant penned the scripts to Kurzel’s Snowtown and True History Of The Kelly Gang and co-wrote Glendyn Ivin’s Toronto International Film Festival 2020 drama Penguin Bloom — a recent box-office hit in Australia. 
Contact: Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International 

Paris, 13th District (Fr)

Dir. Jacques Audiard
French director Audiard’s ninth film (also known as Les Olympiades) revolves around four young adult friends living in Paris’s Les Olympiades neighbourhood. Audiard adapted the script with Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius from US artist Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel Killing And Dying. Audiard first came to Cannes in 1994 with See How They Fall in Critics’ Week, then returned in Competition with A Self-Made Hero, A Prophet, Rust And Bone and Dheepan, the latter winning the Palme d’Or in 2015.
Contact: Playtime

Petrov’s Flu (Rus-Fr-Switz-Ger)

Dir. Kirill Serebrennikov
The latest feature from acclaimed Russian theatre and film director Sere­brennikov is a quirky drama about members of an ordinary family who are harbouring secret sides to their lives. The filmmaker missed out on the Cannes premiere of his Competition title Leto in 2018 because he was under house arrest in Moscow, and a recent travel ban means it is unlikely he will make it to the Croisette this year. Serebrennikov’s religious drama The Student played in Un Certain Regard in 2016.
Contact: Charades 

Red Rocket (US)

Dir. Sean Baker
Baker’s The Florida Project played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2017 and his new feature follows a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown, where nobody is thrilled to see him again. Simon Rex, Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son star in this comedy-drama, which filmed mostly in secret in Texas last year during the pandemic. A24 will distribute in North America, and FilmNation has sold the bulk of international territories to Focus Features.
Contact: FilmNation 

The Restless (Bel-Fr-Lux)

Dir. Joachim Lafosse
Families under duress are a recurring theme in the work of writer/director Lafosse (After Love, Keep Going), and his latest is an exploration of the impact of bipolar disorder on a married couple and their child. The film is a co-production between France’s KG Productions, Luxembourg’s Samsa Film and Belgium’s Prime Time and Stenola Productions. Lafosse’s Private Lessons played in Directors’ Fortnight in 2008, and Our Children was in Un Certain Regard in 2012, where Emilie Dequenne scooped best actress. Contact: Luxbox 

The Story Of My Wife (Hun-Ger-It-Fr)

Dir. Ildiko Enyedi
After winning the Berlinale’s Golden Bear in 2017 with On Body And Soul, Hungary’s Enyedi makes her return to Cannes, where she won the Camera d’Or in 1989 with comedy-drama My Twentieth Century. Enyedi’s latest is a tale of love and jealousy, adapted from Hungarian poet-novelist Milan Füst’s 1942 literary classic of the same name. Dutch actor Gijs Naber stars as a sea captain who believes his flirtatious wife (Léa Seydoux) has been unfaithful to him with a mysterious figure (Louis Garrel). Contact: Films Boutique 

Three Floors (It-Fr)

Dir. Nanni Moretti
Veteran writer/director Moretti appears in Competition for the eighth time, beginning in 1978 with Ecce Bombo, and winning the director prize in 1994 with Dear Diary and the Palme d’Or in 2001 with The Son’s Room among other accolades. Last in Cannes with 2015’s Mia Madre, Moretti returns with this adaptation of Israeli author Eshkol Nevo’s 2015 book about the lives of residents in an upmarket Tel Aviv apartment block. The action is transposed to Rome, with a cast including Margherita Buy, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alba Rohrwacher and Moretti. Moretti’s Sacher Film and Fandango produce in collaboration with Rai Cinema and in co-production with Le Pacte. 
Contact: The Match Factory

Titane (Fr)

Dir. Julia Ducournau
French writer/director Ducournau scored a significant hit with cinephiles and among the gore crowd with her debut Raw, which screened in Critics’ Week 2016. As she returns with her much-awaited follow-up, all that is certain is the title alludes to the metal titanium; that the plot involves a series of murders and a young man returning 10 years after his disappearance; and that it stars Vincent Lindon and newcomer Agathe Rousselle.
Contact: Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International

The Worst Person In The World (Nor-Swe-Den-Fr)

Dir. Joachim Trier
Trier returns to Cannes after his 2015 Competition selection Louder Than Bombs and 2011 Un Certain Regard foray Oslo, August 31st. This new romantic drama — Trier’s fifth feature — stars Renate Reinsve who holds back from starting a family with her older cartoonist boyfriend (Anders Danielsen Lie), and then throws herself into a new relationship with a young man (Herbert Nordrum) she meets at a party. Trier co-writes once again with Eskil Vogt — who appears in Cannes with his own The Innocents. Triart distributes in Sweden, Camera in Denmark, and SF Studios in Norway and other Nordic territories.
Contact: mk2 Films

Out of Competition

Aline, The Voice Of Love (Fr-Can-Bel)

Dir. Valérie Lemercier
Best known to cinephiles for her starring role in Claire Denis’ Friday Night, Lemercier is a popular actress on French stage and screen, as well as a recording artist and director of several films including 1997’s Quadrille and 2017 comedy 50 Is The New 30 (Marie-Francine). Her latest film pumps up the comic kitsch — and the Québécois accents — with a story fondly and broadly inspired by the life of Celine Dion. Aline enjoyed some exposure in France last October through previews and a screening at Festival Lumiere, before Gaumont moved the local release to November 2021. 
Contact: Alexis Cassanet, Gaumont 

Bac Nord (Fr)

Dir. Cédric Jimenez
French filmmaker Jimenez makes his Cannes debut with this crime thriller starring Gilles Lellouche as the commander of a tough police brigade operating in Marseille’s notoriously crime-ridden northern neighbourhoods. It is inspired by a real-life scandal in 2012 in which 18 officers from the city’s anti-crime brigade were charged with drug trafficking and racketeering. While he may not have the typical auteur profile of a Cannes-selected filmmaker, Jimenez has a reputation at home as one of France’s premier thriller directors, with credits including Paris Under Watch, The Connection and The Man With The Iron Heart.
Contact: Anne Cherel, Studiocanal

Emergency Declaration (S Kor)

Dir. Han Jae-rim
This disaster film from the director of Korean hits such as The King (2017) and The Face Reader (2013) tells the story of a passenger jet that requires an emergency landing after a terror incident. The cast includes Song Kang-ho (Parasite), Lee Byung-hun (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) and Jeon Do-yeon (Secret Sunshine) alongside Kim Nam-gil, Yim Si-wan, Kim So-jin and Park Hae-jun. The film is produced by Han’s Woojoo Film, C-JeS Entertainment and Cinezoo.
Contact: Showbox

Peaceful (Fr)

Dir. Emmanuelle Bercot
French director/actress/writer Bercot reunites with Catherine Deneuve and Benoit Magimel, who previously starred together in the director’s Standing Tall which opened Cannes in 2015. Spanning four seasons over the course of a single year, Peaceful features the pair as a mother and son who are coming to terms with the devastating consequences of the latter’s serious illness. Other members of the cast include Cécile de France and real-life doctor Gabriel Sara. Bercot’s other Cannes credits include debut feature Clement, which premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2001, while she also picked up the best actress prize in 2015 for her performance in Maïwenn’s My King.
Contact: Anne Cherel, Studiocanal 

Stillwater (US)

Dir. Tom McCarthy
Matt Damon plays an oil-rig roughneck from the American Midwest who goes to Marseille after his daughter (Abigail Breslin) is arrested for murder. The film, from Amblin Partners, Participant, DreamWorks and Anonymous Content, shot partly in France, and will open in the US on July 30 and in France via Universal in September. Damon and McCarthy have been to the Croisette before with, respectively, Behind The Candelabra (2013) and Up (2009), which McCarthy co-wrote.
Contact: Focus Features

The Velvet Underground (US)

Dir. Todd Haynes
Haynes, who was last in Cannes with 2017 drama Wonderstruck, returns with his eagerly awaited documentary chronicling the 1960s and early 1970s heyday of the influential avant-garde US band of the film’s title. Producer Killer Films has collaborated with Haynes over the past two decades on films including Carol, Far From Heaven and I’m Not There, and the doc includes previously unseen performance footage. Apple TV+ holds worldwide rights. 
Contact: AppleTV+

Where Is Anne Frank (Bel-Lux-Isr-Neth-Fr)

Dir. Ari Folman
This is the third film from Israeli director Folman to premiere on the Croisette, following 2008’s Waltz With Bashir, which played in Competition and was nominated for best foreign-language film at the Oscars, and 2013’s The Congress, which bowed in Directors’ Fortnight. Where Is Anne Frank follows Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Anne Frank dedicated her diary, as she embarks on a journey through modern-day Europe. It is produced by Luxembourg’s Samsa Films, which is also behind Joachim Lafosse’s Competition entry The Restless.
Contact: Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International 

Cannes profiles by Nikki Baughan, Charles Gant, Melanie Goodfellow, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Silvia Wong