a dozen films added, including the animated film by Michel Hazanavicius, in competition

The Cannes Film Festival completed the official selection of the 77th edition on Monday with thirteen new films, including the highly anticipated Michel Hazanavicius, Oliver Stone and Arnaud Desplechin.

Thierry Frémaux had promised it on April 11: the official selection of films presented at the next Cannes Film Festival would be completed later. The festival’s general delegate therefore announced on Monday April 22 the addition of thirteen new films, including three feature films in the running for the Palme d’Or.

We first notice The Most Valuable of Goodsthe animated film by Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist, OSS 117, Le Redoutable, Cut !), who has been working on this project for years. Adapted from the story of the same name by Jean-Claude Grumberg, a tale published by Editions du Seuil in 2019, this film co-produced by StudioCanal is announced in theaters for November 20. It tells the fate of a child saved from the Nazi death camps in Poland by a couple of miserable lumberjacks during the Second World War. The music is by Alexandre Desplat and the voices will be those of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Grégory Gadebois and Dominique Blanc. This is the first animated film in competition at Cannes since Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman in 2008.

Also announced in competition: The Seed of the Sacred Fig by the Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof (Manuscripts do not burn, A man of integrity). We don’t know anything about the plot of the film. Concerned by the Islamic Republic of Iran like other Iranian filmmakers, for having supported the protest movement which followed the death in detention on September 16, 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd of 22 years old arrested for an ill-fitting veil , Mr. Rasoulof was prevented from coming to Cannes last year, where he was to be a juror in the Un Certain Regard section. His passport had been confiscated.

The third film added in competition is Three kilometers to the end of the world by Romanian Emanuel Parvu (Mazes, Unidentified).

From Oliver Stone to Arnaud Desplechin

Out of competition, is added the count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte with Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon and Anaïs Demoustier.

In the Un Certain Regard section, are added Niki, the first feature film by French actress Céline Sallette, When The Light Breaks of the Icelandic Rúnar Rúnarsson, who will open Un Certain Regard on Wednesday May 15, and Flowa cartoon by Latvian Gints Zilbalodis.

In special session, we will find Spectators! by Frenchman Arnaud Desplechin, a celebration of cinemas and their magic, the documentary Lula by the American Oliver Stone, in which he frankly addresses the legal setbacks and the return to power of the Brazilian president, Nasty of the Romanian Tudor Giurgiu and An Unfinished Film by the Chinese Lou Ye.

In the Cannes Première session, we will see Live, Die, Reborn by Frenchman Gaël Morel and Maria by Frenchwoman Jessica Palud.