77th Cannes Film Festival | Place your bets !

(Paris) Who will climb the steps of 77^e Cannes film festival ? The event already has its president of the jury, Greta Gerwig, director of barbiebut rumors abound, like Francis Ford Coppola, before the announcement of the official selection on Thursday.

Kevin Costner in the saddle

This edition, from May 14 to 25, is eagerly awaited after the impact of the 2023 Palme d’Or, Anatomy of a fall by Justine Triet.

“The unanimous response we had proves that 2023 was a very great year,” confirms Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival in the American magazine Variety.

End of the suspense Thursday at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. Eastern time), with the press conference in Paris of the strong man of the biggest world cinema event.

In the box of certainties, there is the preview, out of competition, of Furiosanew part of the franchise Mad Max by George Miller. Red carpet ahead for blockbuster megastars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.

And it’s done: Kevin Costner, back to the western with Horizon, An American Sagawon his ticket, out of competition.

The opening, also out of competition, goes to Quentin Dupieux, specialist in the absurd, with The second actwhich notably features Léa Seydoux.

Camille Cottin will be the mistress of the opening and closing ceremonies, actress revealed by the series Ten percent (Call my agent in English) which opened the doors to Hollywood for him.

Filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen will chair the Critics’ Week jury, director Xavier Dolan that of Un Certain Regard.

British filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank, American Honeyall three Jury Prizes at Cannes) will receive the Carrosse d’or, at the Quinzaine des filmmakers, which rewards “audacity” and “intransigence in the direction and production”.

The thriller Francis Ford Coppola

For the rest, predictions are king. Will we see Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola? Superlatives abound for this monster film, with a budget of 100 million dollars, starring Adam Driver and Forest Whitaker.

“Francis Ford Coppola built the legend of Cannes and it would be an honor to welcome him again,” says Thierry Frémaux in Variety.

The Festival is the garden of this monument of cinema, 85 years old, with the Palmes d’Or for Secret conversationin 1974, and Apocalypse nowin 1979.

Talking about American films means talking about the impact of strikes in Hollywood. “Many productions initially planned for 2024 will be released in 2025,” underlines Thierry Frémaux. But “the United States will still be very present” this year.

Bets are off for David Cronenberg with The Shroudsworn by Diane Kruger and Vincent Cassel.

Exiled Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov stirs up conversations with two options, adapted from French books: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère and The disappearance of Josef Mengele by Olivier Guez, on the doctor who tortured Auschwitz.

Just crowned with an Oscar, Emma Stone, in Kinds of Kindness by Yorgos Lanthimos, would not be out of place in the painting.

The buzz Emmanuelle

The new adaptation of the sulphurous Emmanuelleby Audrey Diwan with Noémie Merlant, would inevitably cause a lot of talk, in the middle of the #metoo of French cinema.

Emilia Pereza cross between the thriller and the musical against the backdrop of drug trafficking in Mexico, directed by Jacques Audiard (winner of a Palme d’Or in 2015), with Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, would be a choice take.

Marcello Mastroianni evoked through his daughter Chiara, in a film alongside his mother Catherine Deneuve? This is the summary of Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré.

Asked by Variety on the presence of Israeli and/or Palestinian films in the official selection, Thierry Frémaux replies: “Nothing prohibits it”. “Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, like intellectuals in these two countries in general, are traditionally in favor of dialogue and those I know call for an end to the conflict and the opening of negotiations.”

The Festival is not a bubble cut off from the upheavals of the world. In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to everyone’s surprise, spoke via video during the opening ceremony, a few months after the start of the Russian invasion of his country.