Cannes’ Critics Week has unveiled the lineup of its 64th edition which will be dominated by French and Belgian movies, kicking off with Laura Wandel’s tense social drama “Adam’s Interest.”
“Adam’s Interest” marks Wandel’s follow up to “Playground” which won a prize Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize in 2021. The film takes place in the pediatric unit of hospital and follows a distraught mother, her son and the nurse who look after them. “Adam’s Interest” stars two of France’s biggest stars, Léa Drucker (“Custody”) and Anamaria Vartolomei (“Happening”).
Curated by artistic director Ava Cahen and her selection committee, the lineup spans 11 feature films, six of which are directed by women. As many as 1,000 films from 102 countries were submitted to this year’s Critics’ Week. The selection is dedicated to first and second features, running alongside the Cannes Film Festival.
Some of the most anticipated films in the lineup include “Left-Handed Girl,” the first feature-length solo film by Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou, who co-wrote the film with Sean Baker (who is also producing).
Cahen said the film was a “fast-paced urban melodrama,” following the journey of a single mother and her two daughters who have recently arrived in Taipei and are struggling to make ends meet. The “tragicomedy gradually metamorphoses into an extraordinary odyssey, full of twists and turns and emotions that pound the asphalt,” Cahen continued.
Another ambitious Asian film slated to compete at Critics’ Week, “A Useful Ghost” marks the feature debut of Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. Cahen said the film was “an extravagant fiction in which ghosts protest against being forgotten by reincarnating as household appliances to attract the attention of the living and agitate all their particles.” Headlined by Mai Davika Hoorne, the rising star of Thai cinema, “A Useful Ghost” is both a “social satire and romantic comedy,” says Cahen.
Also competing is “Sleepless City,” the feature debut of Spanish director Guillermo Galoe, whose 2023 short “Aunque es de noche” competed at Cannes and won a Goya Award. The buddy movie filmed in Canada Real and revolves around two inseparable friends who have to say goodbye because one of them is moving away.
Critics’ Week will turn the spotlight on emerging French filmmakers in special screenings, notably Alice Douard with “Love Letters,” a drama-comedy about motherhood starring Ella Rumpf and Monia Chokri as a married lesbian couple who are expecting their first child. “One is pregnant, the other must take steps to adopt the child that will be born. All kinds of adventures ensue, giving rise to a delightful cast of characters,” said Cahen, adding that film is “full of humour and tenderness.”
Cahen and her committee also selected “Baise en ville” for special screenings. The film is an offbeat working class comedy directed by Martin Jauvat who also stars as a young unemployed stroller who decides to get his driving licence. As he looks for a job to pay for his driving lessons, his salvation comes from an unconventional temp agency
like no other. The cast is completed by two popular actors, William Lebghil and Emmanuelle Bercot.
After premiering the Golden Eye-winning documentary “The Nile Girls” in 2024, Critics’ Week will this year showcase “Imago,” directed Chechen director Déni Oumar Pitsaev in competition. Cahen described it as an “autobiographical documentary filmed with a handheld camera and in direct contact with reality.”
“Imago” follows the director as he sets off to build a futuristic house near the border of Chechnya, breaking away from traditions. His endeavor sparks a debate within the family, rekindling past traumas in his community.
The sidebar will close with “Dandelion’s Odyssey,” an anticipated animated feature directed by Japanese filmmaker Momoko Seto. Critics’ Week previously screened Jeremy Clapin’s Oscar-nominated “I Lost My Body” in 2019.
As previously announced, the jury will be presided over by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and will comprise of Oscar-winning British actor Daniel Kaluuya, Moroccan journalist and songwriter Jihane Bougrine, French-Canadian cinematographer Josée Deshaies, and Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara.
Competition
“Ciudad Sin Sueño” (“Sleepless City”), Guillermo Galoe
“Imago,” Déni Oumar Pitsaev
“Kika,” Alexe Poukine
“Left-Handed Girl,” Shih-Ching Tsou
“Nino,” Pauline Loquès
“Pee Chai Dai Ka” (“A Useful Ghost”), Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
“Rietland” (“Reedland”), Sven Bresser
Special Screenings
“Adam’s Interest”, Laura Wandel (Opening Film)
“Baise en ville,” Martin Jauvat
“Love Letters,” Alice Douard
“Planètes” (“Dandelion’s Odyssey”), Momoko Seto (Closing Film)
