74th Cannes. Directors' Fortnight Selection
Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 4:22PM The Cannes festival runs July 6th through July 17th this year (departing from the usual May) due to taking a year off given COVID-19. After the Main Competition, Un Certain Regard, and Critics Week we have the announcement of the final section: Directors Fortnight. Let's investigate that new group of films though this is the list we have the least information about.
DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
If a film has an asterisk it's a debut and thus eligible for the Camera d'Or.
ALI & AVA (Clio Barnard, UK)
A romantic drama starring Adeel Akhtar (The Four Lions, The Big Sick) and Claire Rushbrook (Enola Holmes, Genius: Einstein). You probably already know if you're a fan of Barnard's work after two relatively high profile critical successes The Arbor (2010), The Selfish Giant (2013), and the more mixed reception of the drama Dark River (2017).
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (Emmanuel Carrere, France)
This is Carrère's first directorial feature since his well-received debut The Moustache (2005). Juliette Binoche plays the journalist Florence Aubenas in this true story of her time in the port city of Caen.
THE BRAVES (Anaïs Volpé, France)
A drama about best friends who are cast as the lead and her understudy in a play. Déborah Lukumuena (Divines) who also stars in Robuste in the Critics Week selection, and Souheila Yacoub star as the inseparable friends.
A BRIGHTER TOMORROW (Yassine Qnia, France) *
Haven't seen any info about this one yet.
A CHIARA (Jonas Carpignano, Italy)
Italian-American Carpignano made his debut with Mediterranea (2015) which was a big winner on the festival circuit and his follow up A Ciambra played at Cannes in 2017 also to acclaim. Not sure what this one is about; it's new enough that, at the time of this writing, there's no info on the Cannes site and no entry on IMDb yet.
THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYEE (Manuel Nieto Zas, Uruguay)
This is the director's third feature after The Dog Pound (2006) and The Militant (2013)
EUROPA (Haider Rashid) *
Cannes' press release indicates that this is a first feature but IMDb says this is a third feature. Hmmm. Now is the time again where we beg filmmakers to consider less generic titles. There have been several films, shorts, tv shows, and probably also documentaries called Europa in the past 30 years. Don't you want it to be easy for people to look up your movie?
FUTURA (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, and Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)
The three filmmakers are delivering a documentary about teenagers in Italy and how they see their country, themselves, and the future.
THE HILL WHERE LIONESSES ROAR (Luana Bajrami) *
You'll remember Bajrami from her terrific supporting work in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). Now she's writing/directing/ and starring in her own feature.
HIT THE ROAD (Panah Panahi, Iran) *
The directorial debut of Jafar Panahi's son who is 37. He previously edited his father's film 3 Faces (2018)
INTREGLADE (Radu Muntean, Romania)
No idea what this one's about but Muntaen and the actress Maria Popistasu previously teams for the riveting relationship drama Tuesday After Christmas (2010) so we're ready for this one!
MAGNETIC BEATS (Vincent Mael Cardona, France) *
No entry on IMDb for either the film or the director but we hear it's set in Brittany France in the 1980s and follows friends who work at a radio station.
MEDUSA (Anita Rocha da Silveira, Brazil)
This is her second feature after Kill Me Please (2015) which played several festivals.
MURINA (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic) *
She was born in what is now Croatia and though this is her directorial feature debut she's already a member of the Academy since she was a nominee for a Student Academy Award and won a prize at Berlinale for her short film Into the Blue (2017).
NEPTUNE FROST (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman)
We're totally on board from the logline alone "An intersex African hacker, a coltan miner and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union". IMDb also says it's a sci-fi musical so color us more than intrigued. Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman are a husband and wife team. She was previously an actress/director and he was previously an actor/composer, and acclaimed slam poet. He also co-wrote the score for the current movie Akilla's Escape which opens in theaters in the US on Friday.
A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING (Payal Kapadia, India) *
Kapadia previously made short films, one of which Afternoon Clouds (2017) won the International Short competition at San Diego Asian Film Festival
OUR MEN (Rachel Lang. Belgium/France) -closing night film
Louis Garrel and Camille Cottin star in this drama, the second film from the director after Baden Baden (2016)
RETURNING TO REIMS/ FRAGMENTS (Jean-Gabriel Périot, France)
Périot was previously César nominated for the documentary A German Youth (2015)
RIPPLES OF LIFE (Shujun Wei, China)
A quick follow up to his debut Striding into the Wind (2020). His short film On the Border (2018) was a winner at Cannes previously.
THE SEA AHEAD (Ely Dagher, Lebanon) *
Dagher won the Palme d'Or for short film in 2015 with the animated Waves '98. This is a feature directorial debut for the 36 year old filmmaker.
THE SOUVENIR PART II (Joanna Hogg, UK)
A follow up to her most succesful film yet, the breakthrough romantic drama starring Honor Swinton Byrne. Honor and her off and onscreen mother Tilda Swinton as well as Richard Ayoade return for the sequel. New cast members include three rising male actors: Harris Dickinson, Charlie Heaton, and Joe Alwyn.
THE TALE OF KING CRAB (Alessio Rigo e Righi and Matteo Zoppis, Italy)
Both directors are Italian-Americans. They previously made the Italian documentary Il Solengo together.
THE TSUGUA DIARIES (Miguel Gomes and Maureen Fazendeiro, Portugal)
This is Gomes first movie since his Arabian Nights trilogy so fascinated cinephiles in 2015. Fazendeiro previously made documentary shorts and also worked in distribution and publishing.
SPECIAL SCREENING
THE SOUVENIR PART I (Joanna Hogg, UK)
Much like a Star Wars installment (tee hee) Hogg's 2019 drama has been retitled "Part 1"
CAROSSE D'OR
MONROVIA, INDIANA (Frederick Wiseman)
Wiseman's 2018 documentary following the 2016 elecition.
Reader Comments (3)
I hope THE SOUVENIR PART II is more interesting than THE SOUVENIR PART I, because that first one was BOR-ing.
Pencil me in for NEPTUNE FROST.
Been waiting for ALI AND AVA. Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook are two hard-working, formidable actors with long careers in British TV, film, and radio dramas, in mostly supporting roles. It will be nice to see them star in Clio Barnard's film; she's one of the most interesting filmmakers out there,
FYI, they were both in ENOLA HOLMES. Akhtar is also great in the new show on Netfllx, SWEET TOOTH.