Ali Abbasi’s Trump Drama ‘The Apprentice,’ Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Kinds of Kindness’ Set for Cannes Competition

Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, Anora, the latest from The Florida Project and Red Rocket director Sean Baker, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, are among the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition.

Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again put together a jaw-dropping supporting cast, including Poor Things alums Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, alongside Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn, Hong Chao and Mamoudou Athie.

Also in the unmissable category is competition entry Emilia Perez, a crime musical from Palme d’Or winner Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Rust and Bone) that stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez.

Canadian directing legend David Cronenberg, who presented Crimes of the Future in Cannes in 2022, is back in competition with The Shrouds, a horror thriller starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce.

Another Cannes veteran, Chinese director Jia Zhangke (Ash Is the Purest White, A Touch of Sin), returns with the competition entry Caught by the Tides, as does exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov (Tchaikovsky’s Wife, Petrov’s Flu, Leto) who will premiere his Ben Whishaw starrer Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie in Cannes, marking the fourth competition entry.

In the nepo baby category, Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio scored a competition slot. The drama stars Chiara Mastroianni playing alongside her mother Catherine Deneuve and off the ghost of her father, Italian acting legend Marcello Mastroianni.

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, the Italian director’s 10th feature, will premiere on the Croisette, a bit of a coup for Cannes, since Sorrentino in recent years has tended to favor Venice as a festival launch pad. His 2013 Oscar winner The Great Beauty, however, was a Cannes premiere. The new feature follows a woman with the same name as the mythological siren the city of Naples is supposedly named after. Gary Oldman plays a supporting role.

Cannes’ 2024 edition kicks off May 14 with the out-of-competition world premiere of the French comedy The Second Act, directed by Quentin Dupieux and starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon.

Among the Hollywood highlights on the Croisette this year are George Miller’s hotly anticipated Max Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, and Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga, the first of his two-part Western epic. Both Warner Bros. titles are screening out of competition in Cannes and are using the high-profile festival bow to kick-start their global rollouts. Warner Bros. is releasing Furiosa in France on May 22 and on the U.S. on May 24. The first of the Horizon films bows stateside June 28. The second drops two months later, on Aug. 16.

It was announced Tuesday that Francis Ford Coppola‘s highly anticipated, self-funded feature Megalopolis would screen in competition May 17. The film starring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza recently screened for potential buyers.

Cannes festival president Iris Knobloch and artistic director Thierry Frémaux presented the official selection for the 77th Cannes Film Festival at a press conference in Paris on Thursday. The lineup includes the official competition and out-of-competition titles, the films in the main festival sidebar Un Certain Regard, as well as special and midnight screenings and the Cannes premiere selection.

The Surfer, an Australia-set Nicolas Cage thriller from Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan, will premiere in Cannes’ Midnight Screening lineup; joined by Soi Cheang’s Hong Kong action film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In; I, the Executioner from Korean director Seung Wan Ryoo; and The Balconettes from French director Noémie Merlant.

Highlights of the Un Certain Regard section include Black Dog from Chinese director Guan Hu; Konstantin Bojanov’s crime drama The Shameless; the Saudi drama Norah from director Tawfik Alzaidi; and September Says, the directorial debut of French actress Ariane Labed (Assassin’s Creed).

Rumors, a political comedy from acclaimed Canadian director Guy Maddin and Evan and Galen Johnson, featuring Alicia Vikander, Cate Blanchett and Charles Dance, will premiere out of competition in Cannes. As will Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s She’s Got No Name.

Leos Carax will get a Cannes Premiere screening for his latest, C’est Pas Moi, a free-form self-portrait of the life and work of the Holy Motors and Annette director.

Yolande Zauberman’s documentary La belle de Gaza, about a transexual Palestinian who goes to Tel Aviv to live in their new identity, will receive a special screening in Cannes. Though the film was made before the ongoing war in the region, Frémaux said it will receive “a new echo” given current events.

Other political documentaries in the special screening section include L’Invasion from Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa (Donbass, My Joy) about the 2022 Russian invasion of his country, and Ernest Cole, Lost and Found, a portrait of the acclaimed South African photographer by director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) narrated by Judas and the Black Messiah star LaKeith Stanfield.

The French festival is coming off a strong year after 2023 competition titles Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest went from the Croisette to Oscar success. Justine Triet’s courtroom drama picked up both the Palme d’Or in Cannes and the Oscar for best original screenplay, while Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust story took the runner-up grand prize in Cannes and two Academy Awards: best international feature and best sound. Knobloch, noting that 2023 festival entries racked up a total of 26 Oscar nominations, said Cannes “confirmed” its status as the place to “find the best films.”

Directing and producing legend George Lucas will be feted at this year’s Cannes, receiving an honorary Palme d’Or for his life’s work. The Star Wars helmer screened his directorial debut, THX-1138, in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar back in 1971. His last film as a director: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, also premiered at the festival, screening out of competition in 2005.

In a new addition this year, the Cannes Festival announced it will launch a competitive immersive section featuring works of virtual and augmented reality that “push the boundaries of storytelling.”

An international jury, headed by Barbie director Greta Gerwig, will pick the winners, including this year’s Palme d’Or, from the competition titles. Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan will head up the Un Certain Regard jury.

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25.

Full lineup of the 2024 Cannes film festival.

The Second Act Quentin Dupieux (Opening Film) (Out of Competition)

Competition

L’Amour Ouf Gilles Lellouche

All We Imagine As Light Payal Kapadia

Anora Sean Baker

The Apprentice Ali Abbasi

Bird Andrea Arnold

Caught by the Tides Jia Zhangke

Emilia Perez Jacques Audiard

The Girl With the Needle Magnus von Horn

Grand Tour Miguel Gomes

Limonov: The Ballad Kirill Serebrennikov

Marcello Mio Christophe Honoré

Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola

Motel Destino Karim Ainouz

Oh Canada Paul Schrader

Parthenope Paolo Sorrentino

The Shrouds David Cronenberg

The Substance Coralie Fargeat

Wild Diamond Agathe Riedinger

Kinds of Kindness Yorgos Lanthimos

Out of Competition

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga George Miller

Horizon, an American Saga Kevin Costner

Rumours Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin

She’s Got No Name Chan Peter Ho-Sun

Un Certain Regard

Armand Halfdan Ullmann Tondel

Black Dog Guan Hu

The Damned Roberto Minervini

L’Histoire de Souleymane Boris Lojkine

My Sunshine Boku No Ohisama

Norah Tawik Alzaidi

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Rungano Nyoni

Le Royaume Julien Colonna

Santosh Sandhya Suri

September Says Ariane Labed

The Shameless Konstantin Bojanov

Viet and Nam Truong Minh Quý

The Village Next to Paradise Mo Harawe

Vingt Deux! Louise Courvoisier

Who Let the Dogs Bite? Laetitia Dosch

Midnight Screenings

The Balconettes Noémie Merlant

I, The Executioner Seung Wan Ryoo

The Surfer Lorcan Finnegan

Twilight of the Warrior Walled In Soi Cheang

Cannes Premiere

C’est Pas Moi Leos Carax

Everybody Loves Touda Nabil Ayouch

The Matching Bang Emmanuel Courcol

Misericorde Alain Guiraudie

Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot Rithy Panh

Le Roman de Jim Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu

Special Screenings

Apprendre Claire Simon

La Belle de Gaza Yolande Zauberman

Ernest Cole, Lost and Found Raoul Peck

Le Fil Daniel Auteuil

The Invasion Sergei Loznitsa