Cannes Market Preview: Buyers Want Great Films in an Industry in Flux

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Buyers look forward to a buzzy Cannes market despite Hollywood contraction and post-strike woes

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Workers hang the official poster of the 77th Cannes Film Festival on the facade of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes (Photo by VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Return to normal” has been the hopeful theme of the Cannes Film Festival market for the last few years as the industry attempted to recover from the pandemic. But the theme of 2024 should probably be “return to new normal” as the industry experiences an ongoing period of contraction following the burst of activity brought on by the streaming boom.

Major films are still up for acquisition, from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” (which closed sales to foreign territories this weekend), to director Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” which stars Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn.

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