Cannes Film Festival announces arthouse-heavy lineup as Hollywood scales back

This year’s Cannes Film Festival will pit stalwarts of arthouse cinema such as Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski and Spain’s Pedro Almodovar against a small pool of newer voices as 21 titles compete for the gathering’s prestigious main prize next month.

The Cannes Film Festival brings together the film industry’s biggest names in the sun-soaked south of France each May to strike deals, pledge their love for cinema and party on yachts.

For directors, winning the festival’s Palme d’Or opens the door to bigger budgets, opportunities and seals their reputation as leading filmmakers.

In announcing this year’s lineup on Thursday, Festival Director Thierry Fremaux noted the absence of big studio films as weak box office revenues force Hollywood to avoid taking risks and to scale back production.

“In the US, it’s a moment of transition. When you have such a transition, they don’t have the projects to produce a lot of films, but I’m sure that it will come back, and we will be there waiting,” he told Reuters.

Former winners compete with newcomers

Two previous Palme winners return to competition, with Japan’s Hirokazu Kore‑eda exploring childhood and artificial intelligence in Sheep in the Box, while Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord stars Norwegian actor Renate Reinsve, fresh from her success in Oscar winner Sentimental Value.

Also back in the running are Pawlikowski with Fatherland, a portrait of German novelist Thomas Mann, and Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes, whose new film focuses on French Resistance figure Jean Moulin.

Other competition veterans include Almodovar, with tragicomedy Bitter Christmas, as well as Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, Japan’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi and France’s Arthur Harari.

Entries featuring big-name actors include U. director Ira Sachs’ 1980s’ AIDS drama The Man I Love, which stars Rami Malek from Bohemian Rhapsody, while Javier Bardem leads The Beloved from Spain’s Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Five films in competition are directed by women, including first‑time contenders Lea Mysius, with the thriller The Birthday Party, and Jeanne Herry’s drama Another Day starring Adele Exarchopoulos.

Outside the main competition

Outside the main competition, the director of the cult classic Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn, returns after a decade with Her Private Hell, while US directors Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard premiere documentaries on John Lennon and fashion photographer Richard Avedon, respectively.

John Travolta, whose superstardom as an actor began with Saturday Night Fever and Grease in the 1970s, makes his debut as a director with the out-of-competition Propeller One‑Way Night Coach.

Korean director Park Chan-wook, who took the festival’s best director award in 2022 for Decision to Leave, will preside over the jury.

The 79th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 12 to 23.