As we do every year, TheWrap is celebrating the Cannes Film Festival by spanning the globe in photos of directors from all sections of the festival. This year’s portfolio consists of three dozen directors shot in 18 cities on four continents and stretches from Buenos Aires to Burbank, Avignon to Zgierz, Shanghai to Strasbourg — with, as usual, plenty of stops in Paris, Los Angeles and New York. Yorgos Lanthimos, Sean Baker, Kirill Serebrennikov and Nabil Ayouch are back for their second appearances in our pages, while Michel Hazanavicius is back for his third. But 2024 also marks the first appearances for Oliver Stone, Jacques Audiard and Sergei Loznitsa, esteemed auteurs we’ve admired for years.
By the way, this year’s jury president, Greta Gerwig, has participated in our portfolio in the past even though she’s never directed a film that has screened at the festival. Back in 2017, Gerwig’s husband, writer-director Noah Baumbach, came to Cannes with “The Meyerowitz Stories” — and when he agreed to appear in our portfolio, we were delighted to learn that he wanted Gerwig to shoot the photo for us. She became the first future jury president to supply us with photos, though she wouldn’t be the last spouse to do so: Two years after Gerwig shot Baumbach, Lena Herzog snapped her husband Werner on a train traveling through Japan. Creativity and continuity — in a way, that’s Cannes in a nutshell.
Kevin Costner, “Horizon, An American Saga,” Out of Competition
Yorgos Lanthimos, “Kinds of Kindness,” Main Competition
Ron Howard, “Jim Henson: Idea Man,” Cannes Classic
David Cronenberg, “The Shrouds,” Main Competition
Noémie Merlant, “The Balconettes,” Midnight Screenings
Oliver Stone, “Lula,” Special Screening
Oliver Stone, “Lula,” Special Screening
Emma Benestan, “Animale,” Critics’ Week: Special Screenings
Raoul Peck, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” Special Screenings
Karim Aïnouz, “Motel Destino,” Main Competition
Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Perez,” Main Competition
Sandhya Suri, “Santosh,” Un Certain Regard
India Donaldson, “Good One,” Directors’ Fortnight
Federico Luis, “Simon of the Mountain,” Critics’ Week
Sean Baker, “Anora,” Main Competition
Louise Courvoisier, “Holy Cow,” Un Certain Regard
Antoine Chevrollier, “La Pampa,” Critics’ Week
Sergei Loznitsa, “The Invasion,” Special Screenings
Boris Lojkine, “The Story of Souleymane,” Un Certain Regard
Constance Tsang, “Blue Sun Palace,” Critics’ Week
Magnus Von Horn, “The Girl With the Needle,” Main Competition
Hiroshi Okuyama, “My Sunshine,” Un Certain Regard
Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light,” Main Competition
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Most Precious of Cargoes,” Main Competition
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Carson Lund, “Eephus,” Directors’ Fortnight
Matthew Rankin, “Universal Language,” Directors’ Fortnight
Peter Ho-Sun Chan, “She’s Got No Name,” Out of Competition
Konstantin Bojanov, “The Shameless,” Un Certain Regard
Jonathan Millet, “Ghost Trail,” Critics’ Week: Special Screenings
Tyler Taormina, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Directors’ Fortnight
Julien Colonna, “Le Royaume,” Un Certain Regard
Jonás Trueba, “The Other Way Around,” Directors’ Fortnight
Laetitia Dosch, “Dog on Trial,” Un Certain Regard
Roberto Minervini, “The Damned,” Un Certain Regard
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, “Armand,” Un Certain Regard
Emanuel Parvu, “3 Kilometers to the End of the World,” Main Competition
Kirill Serebrennikov, “Limonov—The Ballad,” Main Competition
This story originally appeared in the Cannes issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read the full issue here.
