Mark Jenkin and Mia Hansen-Løve will unveil new films at the 54^th Direc­tors’ Fortnight

You always get a sense there’s a bit of pro­fes­sion­al jeal­ousy when it comes to the annu­al announce­ment of the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val line-up. The first big mis­sive comes from le grande fro­mage him­self, Thier­ry Fre­maux, where he lists all the films play­ing in the offi­cial selec­tion – which includes the pres­ti­gious main com­pe­ti­tion. Then, a few days lat­er, we receive the line-up from the Director’s Fort­night pro­gramme which plays a few hun­dred meters down the road.

In terms of what to expect, the Fort­night tends to pro­gramme a slight­ly more chal­leng­ing and styl­is­ti­cal­ly diverse array of movies – ones that may be deemed just a tad too dan­ger­ous for those who like to keep their pow­der dry with the main com­pe­ti­tion offer­ings. In gen­er­al, if you’re in Cannes for dis­cov­ery – which you absolute­ly should be – then the Direc­tors’ Fort­night is for you.

This year, the line-up con­tains a num­ber of extreme­ly excit­ing prospects, includ­ing some from big hit­ters such as open­er Scar­let from the Ital­ian direc­tor Pietro Mar­cel­lo – whose film Mar­tin Eden wowed us back in 2019.

The always great Mia Hansen-Løve is back in town with her lat­est dra­ma One Fine Morn­ing, which stars Léa Sey­doux (who’s set for anoth­er busy year), while Mark Jenkin returns with Enys Men, his fol­low-up to the beloved Bait. There’s also spe­cial screen­ing of the high­ly antic­i­pat­ed new film from Alex Gar­land, Men, star­ring Jessie Buck­ley and Rory Kin­n­ear – mak­ing up for a com­plete wipe-out of British tal­ent in the main Cannes line-up.

We’re look­ing for­ward to the lat­est fea­ture from French film­mak­er Alice Winocour, Paris Mem­o­ries, and also the new one from the great Amer­i­can tal­ent behind the 2015 film The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer, who co-directs with Saela Davis on a new one called God’s Creatures.

Véré­na Par­avel and Lucien Cas­taing-Tay­lor, the exper­i­men­tal doc­u­men­tary two­some behind such films as Leviathan and Sweet­grass return with De Humani Cor­poris Fab­ri­ca, whose title ref­er­ences a famous anti­quar­i­an about human anatomy.

The full line-up is below, and you’ll be able to see our on-the-ground cov­er­age from the Direc­tors’ Fort­night from 18 May.

Scar­let by Pietro Mar­cel­lo (Open­ing Film)
A Male by Fabi­an Hernán­dez
One Fine Morn­ing by Mia Hansen-Løve
Under the Fig Trees by Erige Sehiri
Paris Mem­o­ries by Alice Winocour
The Green Per­fume by Nico­las Paris­er (Clos­ing Film)
Pam­fir by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
The Moun­tain by Thomas Sal­vador
Men by Alex Gar­land (Spe­cial Screen­ing)
Harkis by Philippe Fau­con
God’s Crea­tures by Anna Rose Holmer & Saela Davis
Fun­ny Pages by Owen Kline
Will‑o’-the-Wisp, Feu fol­let by João Pedro Rodrigues
Fal­con Lake by Char­lotte Le Bön
Enys Men by Mark Jenkin
Con­ti­nen­tal Drift by Lionel Baier
De Humani Cor­poris Fab­ri­ca by Véré­na Par­avel & Lucien Cas­taing-Tay­lor
The Five Dev­ils by Léa Mysius
Ashkal by Youssef Cheb­bi
The Super 8 Years by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot
The Dam by Ali Cher­ri
The Water by Ele­na López Riera
1976 de/​by Manuela Martelli

The 54^th Direc­tors’ Fort­night runs 18 – 27 May. For more info vis­it quin​zaine​-real​isa​teurs​.com