As Hollywood and international film luminaries descend on Promenade de la Croisette, it makes me dream of being at Cannes. The last time I blogged about the Cannes Film Festival was back in 2021, but reading a few articles from Variety, Deadline, etc. makes me anticipate some of the movies screening there that I can’t wait to see.

Before I get to that though, check out this gorgeous poster that pays tribute to Akira Kurosawa’s film Rhapsody In August. 

Per Screendaily, the film which stars Sachiko Murase and Richard Gere, played out of competition at Cannes in 1991 and follows a grandmother who lost her husband to the Nagasaki bombing in 1945 and how three generations of her family respond to the tragedy.

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Now, even though there aren’t as many American films screening there this year, which Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux stated is largely due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes in Hollywood last year, there are still a bunch of international films to look forward to.

I pick 10 that I can’t wait to see later this year:

1 | Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director: George Miller
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, Matuse, Goran Kleut, Charlee Fraser

I’m a huge fan of Mad Max: Fury Road, released nearly a decade ago (wow has it been THAT long?) I’ve been anticipating a follow-up to George Miller‘s apocalyptic epic. As the title suggests, this prequel gives us the origin story of the mighty Imperator Furiosa. Charlize Theron left huge shoes boots to fill and Anya Taylor-Joy seems more than poised to step into them as the younger version of the character. Chris Hemsworth is practically unrecognizable as Dementus (ahah, gotta love the name!) and the underrated Tom Burke as a tough road warrior. I missed the daytime press screening and the public screening conflicts with my friend’s daughter’s graduation day, but I’ve got my tickets for next Friday, woo hoo!

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2 | Megalopolis

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito

I’ve been following the journey of Coppola’s self-financed $120 million, 40+ years in the making for a few months now, which has yet to gain a distributor just yet. The high concept of this genre-bending film revolves around utopias, visionaries, and the rise and fall of empires, pitting an idealistic architect named Caesar (Driver) and the mayor of ancient Rome reimagined as modern-day NYC.

So the reviews are mixed, with some calling it ‘mad modern masterwork’ (Deadline), ‘absolute madness’ (Vulture), and this one from The Telegraph made me chuckle ‘Coppola’s latest is like Succession crossed with Batman Forever and a lava lamp…’ ha! The Guardian’s review is the worst one I read so far, calling it ‘megabloated and megaboring.’ Ouch!

Y’know what, these reviews made me even more curious but I also will go in with tempered expectations. You gotta hand it to Coppola for sticking to his guns and making a film he wants to make, no matter the cost. 

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3 | Kinds of Kindness

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn

Stone + Dafoe reunite with Lanthimos, plus Plemons and Chau? I’m SOLD! Billed as a triptych of stories where some of the cast play different roles in all three chapters. I expect some weird, bizarre, absurd, and also funny movie from the singular mind of the acclaimed Greek director. I’m a fan of The Lobster and Poor Things but I’m lukewarm on The Favourite, so we’ll see where this one will land for me.

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4 | Oh, Canada

Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi

I have a blind spot when it comes to Paul Schrader’s work, but something about the premise of this one intrigues me. It also reunites Schrader with Gere, the star of American Gigolo 44 years later. 74-year-old Richard Gere plays an octogenarian cancer-stricken filmmaker who decides to share all about his past as an American who moved to Canada to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War. That decision naturally doesn’t go down well with some of his family and friends, nice to see Thurman in a dramatic role again, and Australian Elordi as younger Gere. 

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5 | Bird

Director: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmin Jobson, James Nelson Noyce, Frankie Box, Franz Rogowski

I have a blind spot on Arnold’s work which I need to rectify. She’s a Cannes staple as her films Cow, American Honey, and Fish Tank have premiered there. Dealing with teenage rebellion and broken families, set in her hometown of Kent, UK, apparently, this is the film Keoghan dropped out of Gladiator 2 for. I’m a big fan of Rogowski from his roles in Transit and A Hidden Life, his character is known as Bird (hence the title). The film marks the feature debut of 14-year-old newcomer Nykiya Adams who’s at the center of the story.

Per this article on Indiewire, Cannes is still thin on female filmmakers (boo!), I think I saw way more female filmmakers at MSPIFF this year.

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6 | Belly of the Beast

Director: Andrew Haigh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Ben Stiller

I was really impressed with Haigh’s All of Us Strangers (Andrew Scott was robbed!) This time he’s got quite an interesting pairing of Farrell and Stiller in a true crime story. The film chronicles the friendship between notorious literary titan Norman Mailer (Stiller) and his protégé, Jack Henry Abbott (Farrell) – a pairing that ends in tragedy. A quick read on Wikipedia sends me chills as to what Abbott does after he’s released from prison on parole thanks to Mailer’s help.

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7 | The Apprentice 

Director: Ali Abbasi
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova

My jaw dropped when I first saw Sebastian Stan in the still above. The ‘Winter Soldier’ proves to be quite versatile, after playing Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee to young, pre-Fascist Donald Trump, wow! From Italian filmmaker Ali Abbasi, the movie charts how Trump started his real estate business in the 1970s and 80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn (Succession‘s Strong). Watching this during an election session here in America will be extra surreal.

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8 | California Schemin’

Director: James McAvoy
Cast: James McAvoy, Samuel Bottomley, Séamus McLean Ross

More and more actors are going into directing, and it’s Glaswegian thespian James McAvoy’s turn. It charts the true story of two Scottish lads from Dundee, Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be established Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains. It’s based on Bain’s book Straight Outta Scotland: A True Story of Fakery, Money and Betrayal in the Music Industry. How could I not be interested in that story?  

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9 | Power Ballad

Director: John Carney
Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas

I’m always up for John Carney’s movies… now he’s got Paul Rudd as the lead? Sign me up! On IMDb trivia it says that it’s a loose remake of Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer. Rudd plays a middle-aged wedding band singer who seeks to reclaim his work and lost career when he’s shafted for a writing credit on a song he made with a former boy bander (Jonas). Looks like a perfect blend of comedy and tragedy, with some great ballads from Carney too, I’m sure.

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10 | Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Director: Nanette Burstein

One of the most famous actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age that I don’t know much about, so I’m curious to see this documentary. The Cannes official site cites that Burstein drew on 70 hours of private recordings and delved into Liz Taylor’s personal archives to depict her life, from her childhood to her twilight years.  This portrait also serves as a dissection of Hollywood, at a time when so-called “starlets” were caught up in the turbulence of studios set on imposing upon them roles, and even lovers, against their will.

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So these are just a sampling of Cannes movies that I look forward to, surely there are more that aren’t on the list.

Which Cannes movies are YOU excited about?