Cannes 2024: Irish films to have unprecedented prominence at festival

There will be unprecedented Irish interest at next month’s 77th Cannes film festival, with three films produced by Dublin’s Element Pictures to form part of the official selection.

At a press conference in Paris, Thierry Frémaux, head of the event, confirmed that Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness, follow-up to the same team’s Oscar-winning Poor Things, competes for the Palme d’Or. Ariane Labed’s debut September Says and Rungano Nyoni’s second film On Becoming a Guinea Fowl both play in the Un Certain Regard section.

Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, a study of Donald Trump’s early career, co-produced by the Irish company Tailored Films, is also in the main competition. Lorcan Finnegan, the Irish director who had a hit at Cannes with Vivarium in 2019, brings The Surfer, an Australian production featuring Nicolas Cage, to the Midnight Screenings section. Cannes will welcome back buzzy Irish actor Barry Keoghan. The Dubliner stars opposite Franz Rogowski in Bird, the latest film from celebrated British director Andrea Arnold. The Apprentice and September Says both received support from Screen Ireland. Robbie Ryan, the acclaimed Irish cinematographer, was behind the camera for Bird and Kinds of Kindness.

“Screen Ireland is delighted that there is such a strong presence for Irish film and creative artists at the Cannes film festival this year,” Désirée Finnegan, chief executive of the body, said in a statement. “Congratulations go to the creative teams behind of all of these films.”

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Frémaux confirmed that the Hollywood actors’ strike had hindered American production, but, following a notably successful 76th edition, this remains another starry selection packed with distinguished veterans. Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader and David Cronenberg, among the most important North American filmmakers of their generation, all land in competition. Cronenberg is there with The Shrouds, Schrader gives us Oh Canada, and Coppola finally delivers his allegorical epic Megalopolis. That last film, largely financed out of the director’s own pocket, will be among the most eagerly anticipated of the event. Coppola is one of a small band to have won two Palmes d’Or.

Attention around the archly titled The Apprentice will also be fierce. Sebastian Stan stars in a film examining Trump’s early years dealing in New York real estate. Maria Bakalova, Oscar-nominated for the Borat sequel, appears as Ivana Trump. Jeremy Strong, breakout star from Succession, stars as the notoriously ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn.

Little is known about Arnold’s Bird, but, coming off success in Saltburn, Barry Keoghan is sure to burnish his brand in a film by one of the UK’s most celebrated directors. “It’s not about the destiny of a Bird,” Frémaux joked. “It’s a coming-of-age of a young girl in a British neighbourhood. They try to escape from her social destiny.” Arnold’s American Honey won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2016.

Element’s achievement would be remarkable for any production company. “It’s pretty wild to have three films in the official selection at Cannes,” Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney, Oscar-nominated founders of the Irish company, told The Irish Times. “And we are so proud of these films and film-makers and really delighted and honoured to have been included. And also so grateful to the team at Element for guiding them from inception to their upcoming world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.”

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Kinds of Kindness is Lanthimos’s fifth collaboration with the company. Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe, the picture is described as “a triptych fable” concerning a man trying to regain control of his life, a policeman worried by his wife’s apparent transformation and a woman “determined to find a specific someone destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader”. It was filmed shortly after Poor Things.

Ariane Labed, who starred in Lanthimos films such as The Lobster and Alps, makes her debut with September Says, which was shot in Ireland. The Welsh-Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, here with Element’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, had a spectacular debut with I Am Not a Witch at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2017.

Other high-profile releases had already been announced. George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel to his dystopian epic, will play to an eager crowd on the second day. It is eight years since Mad Max: Fury Road began its journey to unlikely Oscar glory at Cannes. The new film features Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of the amazon so memorably played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road.

Kevin Costner will be on the Côte d’Azur to launch the first part of Horizon: An American Saga, an epic western that will be released commercially in two sections. The director stars opposite Sienna Miller and Danny Huston in a tale set during the American Civil War.

Also among the titles announced by Fremaux was new work by such acclaimed filmmakers as Sean Baker, Jacques Audiard, Paolo Sorrentino and Leos Carax. There is no sign of the festival losing its influence.

The Cannes film festival runs from May 15th until May 17th.

OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR THE 77TH CANNES FESTIVAL

OPENING FILM

LE DEUXIEME ACTE (THE SECOND ACT) – Quentin Dupieux (Out of Competition)

COMPETITION

THE APPRENTICE – Ali Abbasi

MOTEL DESTINO – Karim Aïnouz

BIRD – Andrea Arnold

EMILIA PEREZ – Jacques Audiard

ANORA – Sean Baker

MEGALOPOLIS – Francis Ford Coppola

THE SHROUDS – David Cronenberg

THE SUBSTANCE – Coralie Fargeat

GRAND TOUR – Miguel Gomes

MARCELLO MIO – Christophe Honoré

FENG LIU YI DAI (CAUGHT BY THE TIDES) – Jia Zhang-Ke

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT – Payal Kapadia

KINDS OF KINDNESS – Yorgos La nthimos

L’AMOUR OUF – Gilles Lellouche

WILD DIAMOND – Agathe Riedinger (1st film)

OH CANADA – Paul Schrader

LIMONOV – THE BALLAD – Kirill Serebrennikov

PARTHENOPE – Paolo Sorrentino

PIGEN MED NÅLEN (THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE) – Magnus von Horn

UN CERTAIN REGARD

NORAH – Tawfik Alzaidi

THE SHAMELESS – Konstantin Bojanov

LE ROYAUME – Julien Colonna 1st film

VINGT DIEUX! – Louise Courvoisier (1st film)

WHO LET THE DOG BITE? (LE PROCÈS DU CHIEN) – Laetitia Dosch (1st film)

GOU ZHEN (BLACK DOG) – Guan Hu

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE – Mo Harawe (1st film)

SEPTEMBER SAYS – Ariane Labed (1st film)

L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE – Boris Lojkine

THE DAMNED – Roberto Minervini

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL – Rungano Nyoni

BOKU NO OHISAMA (MY SUNSHINE) – Hiroshi Okuyama

SANTOSH – Sandhya Suri

VIET AND NAM – Truong Minh Quý

ARMAND – Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (1st film)

OUT OF COMPETITION

SHE’S GOT NO NAME – Chan Peter Ho-Sun

HORIZON – Kevin Costner

RUMOURS – Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson & Guy Maddin

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA – George Miller

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIOR WALLED IN – Soi Cheang

THE SURFER – Lorcan Finnegan

THE BALCONETTES – Noémie Merlant

I, THE EXECUTIONER – Ryoo Seung Wan

CANNES PREMIERE

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA – Nabil Ayouch

C’EST PAS MOI – Leos Carax

EN FANFARE (THE MATCHING BANG) – Emmanuel Courcol

MISÉRICORDE – lain Guiraudie

LE ROMAN DE JIM – Arnaud Larrieu & Jean-Marie Larrieu

RENDEZ-VOUS AVEC POL POT – Rithy Panh

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

LE FIL – Daniel Auteuil

ERNEST COLE, LOST AND FOUND – Raoul Peck

THE INVASION – Sergei Loznitsa

APPRENDRE – Claire Simon

LA BELLE DE GAZA – Yolande Zauberman