The Cannes 2024 Festival unveils its official selection and jury members

The official selection and jury for the 77th Cannes Film Festival have finally been announced. The program for this Olympic year includes 54 films, 19 of which are in the running for the Palme d’Or.

Attention movie lovers, the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14th to 25th this year. This year, the Palme d’Or will be awarded on July 17th at the end of the awards ceremony by American director Greta Gerwig, who gave us one of the biggest hits of 2023, Barbie.

The Festival’s selection was announced by its general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, and Iris Knobloch, its president, on Thursday, April 11th, at a press conference held in one of the theaters of UGC Normandie in Paris, before being completed on Monday, April 22nd. This year, 54 films will be presented at Cannes, including 19 competing for the Festival’s Palme d’Or.

As usual, the selection of films is a meticulous process. This year, it is “the result of the screening of a total of 2,000 films, all of which we have watched,” Thierry Frémaux wanted to specify. The 2024 vintage was eagerly awaited after the immense global success of Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet in 2023, winner of the Palme d’Or, then rewarded internationally.

Akira Kurosawa in the spotlight

After Catherine Deneuve, immortalized on the set of Alain Cavalier’s La Chamade (1968), the 77th Cannes Film Festival has decided to honor Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, winner of the 1980 Palme d’Or for Kagemusha, which tied with Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, on its official poster.

Instead of the samurai combat and Shakespearian drama that are inseparable from the director’s work (Rashōmon, The Seven Samurai, Ran, Spider Castle…), the visuals reflect the trauma of the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans on the city of Nagasaki. The penultimate film in his prolific filmography, Rhapsody in August, released in 1991, tells the story of several generations with the bombings that shook the Japanese archipelago on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Star-Studded Cast

Actress Camille Cottin confirms her status as the new emblematic actress of French cinema by taking on the role of mistress of ceremonies for the opening and closing ceremonies. Xavier Dolan, the director of Mommy, will be the president of the Un Certain Regard jury.

The father of the Star Wars saga, director George Lucas, will be the special guest at the closing ceremony of the Festival and will receive a well-deserved honorary Palme d’Or for his legendary filmography. Studio Ghibli, known for animated films such as Spirited Away and more recently The Boy and the Heron, will also be honored with this distinction. Throughout the history of the Cannes Film Festival, many cinema legends have received this award, such as Jane Fonda, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, or Michael Douglas at the 76th edition.

But above all, while we’ve known the name of jury president Greta Gerwig since December, this weekend we learned the names of the eight jurors who will be accompanying her. Joining the American director behind the worldwide box office success Barbie will be Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, Spanish director, producer and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda and French actor and producer Omar Sy.

A Sharp Selection

In total, 19 films are competing for the Palme d’Or to succeed Anatomy of a Fall. Among the notable announcements is the return of Francis Ford Coppola in competition with Megalopolis, 45 years after his second Palme d’Or for Apocalypse Now (1979). Director Jacques Audiard will present Emilia Perez, a musical comedy bordering on the crime thriller genre, starring Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez.

Zoé Saldana in the upcoming film by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez

The opening film of the Festival will be the new feature film by the prolific Quentin Dupieux. Titled The Second Act, the director’s thirteenth film features a stellar cast. To embody the four main roles, Quentin Dupieux chose Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, and his favorite actor, Raphaël Quenard, recently awarded the César for Best Male Newcomer.

The Shrouds by David Cronenberg will also be part of the competition. With Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in the cast, this feature film co-produced by Maison Saint Laurent – like Emilia Perez and Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino – tells the story of Karsh, a renowned businessman who, after the death of his wife, invents a revolutionary system to allow the living to connect with their dearly departed.

Another event of this official selection, Yórgos Lánthimos will present the film Kinds of Kindness. After the critical success of The Lobster (2015) and Poor Things (2023), there is no doubt that the new film by the Greek director will captivate both the audience and the jury.

Finally, it is worth noting the presence of the animated film The Most Precious Merchandise by Michel Hazanavicius in this selection. The director of The Artist, OSS 117 and Deerskin! has been working for several years on the adaptation of this tale by Jean-Claude Grumberg. The story tells the fate of a child saved from the Nazi death camps in Poland by a couple of miserable woodcutters during World War II. With music by Alexandre Desplat, it is the first animated film in competition at Cannes since Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman in 2008.

Films in competition:

The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi

Motel Destino by Karim Aïnouz

Bird by Andrea Arnold

Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard

Anora by Sean Baker

Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola

The Shrouds by David Cronenberg

The Substance by Coralie Fargeat

Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes

The Most Precious Merchandise by Michel Hazanavicius

Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré

Feng liu yi dai by Jia Zhang-Ke

All we imagine as light by Payal Kapadia

Kinds of Kindness by Yórgos Lánthimos

Love Ouf by Gilles Lellouche

Three Kilometers to the End of the World by Emanuel Parvu

The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof

Raw Diamond by Agathe Riedinger

Oh Canada by Paul Schrader

Limonov – The Ballad by Kirill Serebrennikov

Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino

The Girl with the Needle by Magnus Von Horn

Featured Photo: Official poster of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, extract from the film “Rhapsody in August” (1991), by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa © Cannes France

Charline Point

[EN] Passionate about art in all its forms, Charline Point is a young journalist driven by fierce curiosity and a keen appetite for culture. After several years in press relations, Charline decided to take up a career in journalism. Her favorite subjects are travel, gastronomy, cinema and fashion.************** [FR] Passionnée par l’art dans toutes ses formes, Charline Point est une jeune journaliste animée par une curiosité féroce et une vive appétence pour la culture. Après plusieurs années dans les relations presse, Charline se lance dans le journalisme. Ses sujets de prédilection s’orientent autour du voyage, de la gastronomie, du cinéma et de la mode.