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The old adage says: “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” That’s a sentiment that Jean-Christophe Meurisse takes fully to heart in his latest comedy, which makes such a screeching gear change towards the end into a grimly dark home straight that the chances of taking everyone with him are virtually nil.

Up until that point, there’s quite a lot for most people to enjoy about this absurdist romp, which closed Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight three years after Bloody Oranges showed there out of competition. The set-up is engagingly daft and arrived at in shaggy dog fashion as we hear about crack detective Zavatta (Anthony Paliotti) from a pair of pathologists as they work on a body. In fact, Zavatta is just one part of a large ensemble cast in a narrative that is as much about trimmings as it is the meat of the story.

Following the main lineups for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, a handful of sidebar slates have been unveiled, featuring Directors Fortnight, Critics Week, and Acid. Notable highlights include the Sundance favorite Good One (read our review here), Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point starring Michael Cera, the first film in over a decade from James White director Josh Mond, the Christopher Abbott-led It Doesn’t Matter, Eat the Night from Jessica Forever duo Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, Carson Lund’s Eephus, Patricia Mazuy’s Visting Hours, The Hyperboreans, a new film from The Wolf House directors Cristobal Leo & Joaquin Cocina, Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century follow-up Universal Language, and more.

Check out the lineups below.

Cannes Directors Fortnight

Feature films:

“Ma Vie Ma Gueule,” Sophie Fillieres (France) – opening film

“A Son Image,” Thierry de Peretti (France)

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” Tyler Taormina (USA)

“Desert of Namibia,...

This year’s edition of the Directors’ Fortnight will begin with Barbie and end with…plastic. Julien Rejl‘s selection committee have lassoed a total of twenty-one features for a slate that will bookend with Sophie Fillières‘ final feature (she passed away shortly after filming) in Ma Vie Ma Gueule which is selected as the section’s opener (Agnès Jaoui’s character’s nickname is that of the plastic doll) and the closing film honors will go to Bloody Oranges director Jean-Christophe Meurisse‘s comedy about a road-trip gone wrong titled Plastic Guns. Adding to the red, white and blue of France, we find high profile items in Patricia Mazuy‘s La Prisonnière De bordeaux (stars Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi), Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel‘s Eat The Night and Thierry de Peretti‘s À son image.…...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section has unveiled its lineup for the 2024 festival, which will open with This Life of Mine, the final feature from the late French director Sophie Fillières. The drama features Agnès Jaoui as a woman whose identity starts to unravel when she turns 55. Fillières died shortly after wrapping principal photography on the film and her children finished post-production.

There are four U.S. titles in the feature section of the non-competitive sidebar: Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, Carson Lund’s Eephus, India Donaldson’s Good One and Gazer from Ryan J. Sloan.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, starring Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Francesca Scorsese. Ben Shenkman, Gregg Turkington, Sawyer Spielberg, Maria Dizzia and newcomer Matilda Fleming, follows four generations as they gather for what might be their last Christmas in the family home. Lund, who lensed Christmas Eve, makes his feature debut with Eephus,...

The 77th edition of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight will kick off with “This Life of Mine,” a dramedy directed by Sophie Fillières, a renowned French filmmaker who died last year. Presented posthumously, the film is headlined by French stars including Agnès Jaoui, Philippe Katerine and Valérie Donzelli. The independent selection, which has recently gone through a rebranding and is now spearheaded by artistic director Julien Rejl, will close with another French film, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s “Plastic Guns,” an offbeat crime comedy headlined by popular actor Jonathan Cohen.

The lineup includes as many as four U.S. features, three of which are feature debuts, including India Donaldson’s coming-of-age film”Good One” which premiered at Sundance and garnered solid reviews. Set in upstate New York, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam as she joins her father and his oldest friend, Matt, on their annual backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains. “Good One” has...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 56th edition heavy on films from first-time US filmmakers, South American titles, and talent including Isabelle Huppert, Michael Cera and Agnès Jaoui.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 16) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

After undergoing a complete rebranding for last year’s edition complete with new artistic director Rejl and a new more inclusive female-forward name in French to La Quinzaine des Cinéastes, this year’s selection includes eight...

Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the line-up for its 56th edition running from May 15 to 23, at a press conference in Paris’ Forum des Images cultural center.

The section, launched in 1969 and overseen by the French Directors Guild, will present 21 feature films and 10 short films.

It is the second line-up overseen by Delegate General Julien Rejl, who took up the role last year.

Discoveries of his inaugural edition included Georgian director Elene Naveriani’s late coming-of-age drama Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry; U.S. indie film Riddle Of Fire by Weston Razooli, as well as Vietnamese filmmaker Phạm Thiên Ân’s 2023 Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell.

The 2024 edition will open with late director Sophie Fillières’ final feature This Life of Mine, starring Agnès Jaoui as a woman whose sense of self starts to unravel as she turns 55.

Fillières died shortly after completing the shoot and her...

Paris-based sales company is bringing eight new titles to Rendez-Vous.

Julie Delpy’s immigration-themed comedy Meet The Barbarians (Les Barbares) is among eight new titles Paris-based sales company Charades is launching at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema this month.

The event takes place from January 16-23 in Paris.

Charades extensive Rendez-Vous line-up also includes 3D animation Flow, romantic comedy Just A Couple of Days starring Camille Cottin, Jeremie Sein’s Olympic sports comedy Game Changers, Antoine Raimbault’s political thriller Smoke Signals, Gustave Kervern’s revenge story Enough Is Enough!, dark comedy Plastic Guns plus recently announced adaptation And...

Brussels-based sales outfit unveils Paris Rendez-Vous slate.

Brussels-based sales company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired Michaël Dichter’s pre-teen feature The Fantastic Three and Angela Ottobah’s genre drama Rapture.

Bff will also market premiere Nicolas Silhol’s Anti-Squat at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

The Fantastic Three (Les Trois Fantastiques) is Dichter’s feature debut and is a continuation of his César-nominated short film Pollux.

Set in contemporary Eastern France, the film follows a group of pre-teen boys, aka “the fantastic three,” who lean on each other amidst their complicated home lives. When the brother of...

Brussels-based sales outfit unveils Rendez-Vous slate.

Brussels-based sales company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired Michaël Dichter’s pre-teen feature The Fantastic Three and Angela Ottobah’s genre drama Rapture.

Bff will also market premiere Nicolas Silhol’s Anti-Squat at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

The Fantastic Three (Les Trois Fantastiques) is Dichter’s feature debut and is a continuation of his César-nominated short film Pollux.

Set in contemporary Eastern France, the film follows a group of pre-teen boys, aka “the fantastic three,” who lean on each other amidst their complicated home lives. When the brother of one...

Running Jan. 13-Feb. 13, this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, an online fest organized by France’s film-tv promotional body Unifrance, will mark its 13th edition with an emphasis on debut features and dynamic new voices.

Showcasing star power, animated auteur fare and award-winning documentaries – all subtitled in 15 languages – the 12 features and 17 shorts of this year’s selection will reach home viewers via 70 partner platforms as well on MyFrenchFilmFestival.com, where all the shorts will be available to screen free of charge.

In an effort to cast as wide a net as possible, this year’s competition will feature projects that run the gamut from Alice Diop’s breakthrough documentary “We” – which finds connections in the lives of immigrants, lovesick teens and retirees all connected by a commuter rail line north of Paris – to Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s satirical sketch comedy “Bloody Oranges,” which shreds polite society with anarchic glee.

In between are everything...

Universal’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ and Sony’s ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ both out.

Two modern music icons face off at UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, with the release of David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream and Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song.

Opening in 50 sites, most of which are Imax, Universal’s Moonage Daydream is a journey through Bowie’s creative and musical output. The film, which launched as an out-of-competition Midnight Screening in Cannes this May, is written, directed, edited and produced by US filmmaker Brett Morgen.

Moonage Daydream has the backing of the David Bowie estate...

A corrupt minister and a delusional pair of dance contestants are just two of the monsters of mediocrity who haunt Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s strange film

Macron’s France gets tied to a chair in a basement and abused in this scabrous and gruesome state-of-the-nation black comedy from Jean-Christophe Meurisse. Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) are a conceited retired couple in deep denial about how much debt they’re in, but hoping to win big money by competing in a dance contest. They figure they are entitled to extra points for being older, and the ferocious opening scene shows the judges debating precisely this kind of liberal identity-politics issue.

The couple’s grown-up son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), is a lawyer who, along with a bleary spin doctor (Denis Podalydès), is advising a creepy and reactionary government minister (Christophe Paou) who is keen to cut welfare while engaging in personal...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to Mihai Mincan’s drama thriller “To The North” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.

Inspired by true events, the film follows Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, who finds a Romanian stowaway, Dumitru, hidden between some containers during his shift on a transatlantic ship. Joel decides to hide him and subsequently starts feeling tormented by his crew, friends and even God.

“To The North” stars Soliman Cruz, Niko Becker, Bart Guingona and Olivier Ho Hio Hen (“Stillwater”). The topnotch crew includes cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark (“Immaculate”), sound designer Nicolas Becker (“Sound Of Metal”) and sound mixer Cyril Holtz (“The Sister Brothers”).

“To The North” is produced by De Film Production (“Alis”), Remora Films, Studio Bauhaus, Screening Emotions and Background Films.

“We can’t be prouder to represent the film. It is surprisingly masterful for a debut, an immersive cinematographic experience,...

Always nuggets of great info when the Cnc reveals what projects they are throwing their weight behind. Via Cineuropa we learn that Sofia Djama will embark on her sophomore project titles A Quarter To Thursday In Algiers and Teddy Lussi-Modeste will move onto his third feature film titled, Pas de vague. Jean-Christophe Meurisse and Olivier Meys complete the quartet of filmmakers who are setting up their next projects with Cnc coin.

Book writer turned filmmaker Sofia Djama saw her debut film Les bienheureux premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival (Lyna Khoudri won the Best Actress Award in the Orizzonti section).…...

Last month, French filmmaker Jean-Christophe Meurisse celebrated the arrival of his latest project, Bloody Oranges, on VOD here stateside courtesy of Dark Star Pictures. Daily Dead recently had the chance to briefly catch up with Meurisse about his wildly shocking dark comedy that weaves together several stories about how society continues to fail us all collectively that culminates in extraordinary fashion. Here’s what Meurisse had to say about his approach to the story of Bloody Oranges, how the film isn’t specific to society in France, and more.

What was the inspiration behind the stories being told in Bloody Oranges?

Jean-Christophe Meurisse: Bloody Oranges was inspired by three real events that happened in the world. These three news items appealed to me because they all told the story of a monster. Society creates monsters, at all levels of the population, and it is this subject that interested me.

I...

Following its run on the festival circuit, which included a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and screenings at Fantastic Fest, Jean-Christophe Meurisse's Bloody Oranges will be releasing on VOD on April 19th from Dark Star Pictures, but you can get a tease of what to expect right now by checking out this exclusive clip just for Daily Dead readers!

"A retired couple enter a dance contest, a corrupt politician, a girl eager to lose her virginity, and a young lawyer obsessed with social status - a seemingly benign look into these daily lives goes haywire in this shocking black comedy."

Bloody Oranges stars Alexandre Steiger, Christophe, Paou, Lilith Grasmug, and Olivier Saladin. Check out the dance competition clip below and be on the lookout for Heather Wixson's interview with Jean-Christophe Meurisse later this week!



The post Indie Horror Month 2022: Watch an Exclusive Clip from French...

Pondering Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s Bloody Oranges kindled a somewhat unexpected association in my mind. The opening minutes, and the following deviation from the tone they set, made me think of Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods. A strange comparison indeed, but not entirely unfounded. Both introductory sequences defy the expectations about the respective features - that of a disturbing dark comedy and a run-of-the-mill slasher. In both cases, prolonged and talky openings act as preludes to mayhem. You would certainly be reading a more elaborate analogy were Bloody Oranges as subversive and effortlessly witty as Goddard’s debut.

Meurisse's film assumes a fragmented format, following, among others, a pair of seniors (Lorella Cravotta and Olivier Saladin) hoping to counter their debts by winning a dancing contest, an insecure lawyer who happens to be their son (Alexandre Steiger), a teenager readying herself to lose her virginity (Lilith Grasmug), a corrupt finance secretary (Christophe.

Strange Fruit: Meurisse Gets Gonzo with Slice of Cinema Bizarre

Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse follows up his 2016 comedy Apnee with something a bit more uncomfortable in its droll observations of contemporary France with Bloody Oranges. Technically a social issue comedy taking a hard left turn into horror, it’s odd intermingling of characters, story lines, and tonal elements position Meurisse, perhaps best revered for his theater work, as the next Gallic cult filmmaker.

Marrying psychosis to capitalism with a dash of feminism, who is to say if anyone really wins, suggesting trauma and tragedy are potentially up for interpretation based on one’s own penchant for cynicism.…...

Edouard Weil and Alice Girard, the producers of Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” and Valerie Lemercier’s Celine Dion movie “Aline,” won the Toscan du Plantier Award at a fancy Paris ceremony hosted by the Cesar Academie.

Weil and Girard, who run the Paris-based production banner Rectangle Productions, were selected by 1,557 voters, including all the artists and crew members who have been nominated at the Cesar Awards since 2008, as well as the 164 members of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema.

Besides “Happening” and “Aline,” Rectangle Productions delivered several other critically acclaimed films within the last year, including Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s “Bloody Oranges” and Gaspar Noé’s “Vortex” which played at Cannes.

Since being created by Weil in 2003, the company has also produced films by international auteurs, including Elia Suleiman. Girard, an industry veteran who previously held a senior executive position at French broadcasting group France Televisions, joined...

A case study in the importance of knowing as little about a movie’s plot in advance as possible, “Bloody Oranges” ends somewhere completely different from where it began with only minor stumbles along the way. This acerbic look at the France of today isn’t as ha-ha funny as director Jean-Christophe Meurisse probably intended, but its darker shades reveal an underbelly that’s hard to turn away from — even if a few graphic scenes will make you want to.

Our deceptively low-stakes entrée into this world is a lengthy scene in which the judges of a local dance competition argue among themselves over the contestants’ respective skills and get sidetracked by tangential digressions and increasingly heated debates; one of them even breaks down in tears. The contest itself is a no-frills affair taking place in a gymnasium with no real audience beyond the aspiring dancers themselves, including an older...

Titles from Cannes, Sundance among the international selection.

Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane and Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror Censor are among 17 titles selected for the Kinoscope programme of the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival (August 13-20).

The selection is comprised of international titles, and is split into three strands. Kinoscope Real titles will debut each day at noon; Kinoscope, for crossover arthouse films which will premiere in early evening; and Kinoscope Surreal consists of late-night screenings of genre films.

The six titles in the Kinoscope strand include Laura Wandel’s Belgian drama Playground, which premiered in Un Certain...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.

“El Gran Movimiento” marks Russo’s follow up to his 2016 feature debut “Dark Skull” which won a prize at Locarno and played at San Sebastian, among other festivals. “Dark Skull” went on to represent Bolivia in the Oscar race.

Set in contemporary Bolivia, the movie follows Elder and his companions who arrive in La Paz after a seven-day walk and seeks to be reinstated in his work at the mine. Once in the city, Elder gets a job but his health starts to deteriorate. An elderly woman known as Mama Pancha connects him to Max, a witch doctor, hermit, and clown, who will try to bring the young man back to life.

The movie is produced by Russo and Pablo Paniagua at Socavón and Alexa Rivero...

Roughly midway through pitchblack French comedy Bloody Oranges (Oranges Sanguines), a quote from Marxist philosopher and politician Antonio Gramsci appears onscreen. “The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born: Now is the time of monsters.”

While Gramsci may have written this in 1937 from a prison cell in Fascist Italy just as World War II loomed, he could well have penned the line — or at least the second half of it — about this key moment in Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s film, which is getting a Midnight Screening in Cannes.

It’s at this point in the film ...

Roughly midway through pitchblack French comedy Bloody Oranges (Oranges Sanguines), a quote from Marxist philosopher and politician Antonio Gramsci appears onscreen. “The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born: Now is the time of monsters.”

While Gramsci may have written this in 1937 from a prison cell in Fascist Italy just as World War II loomed, he could well have penned the line — or at least the second half of it — about this key moment in Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s film, which is getting a Midnight Screening in Cannes.

It’s at this point in the film ...

It’s been a while, but for the first time since 2019, the Cannes Film Festival is officially happening on the Croisette. After being canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is happening right now on the French Riviera with a full slate of international features. Here’s everything to know about this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including the full lineup.

What movies are playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival?

The 2021 lineup at the Cannes Film Festival features new films from Wes Anderson, Sean Baker, Sean Penn, Leo Carax, and Tom McCarthy. But despite the usual vast pedigree of talent at Cannes, awards attention for the films that launch there is uncertain. Only twice have Palme d’Or winners subsequently won Best Picture at the Oscars (1955’s “Marty” and 2019’s “Parasite”) — although that data point could be rendered moot by the coronavirus pandemic. The...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has closed major territories on Hadas Ben Aroya’s daring sophomore outing “All Eyes Off Me,” which world premiered at Berlin in the Panorama section.

The drama, which is set in contemporary Tel Aviv, was sold to Film Movement for North America, and also lured buyers in France (Wayna Pitch), Japan (Klockworx), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato) and South Korea (Lumix Media).

The film weaves three stories portraying Tel Aviv’s youth and is headlined by a cast of fresh faces and up-and-comers including Elisheva Weil (“Just For Today”), Leib Lev Levin (“Blackspace”), Yoav Hait and Hadar Katz.

The plot revolves around Danny who is searching for Max at a party to tell him that she’s pregnant with his child. But Max just started a new relationship with the wild Avishag, who actually has someone else in mind.

“All Eyes Off Me” is produced by Ben Aroya,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired “Medusa,” a timely drama directed by rising Brazilian helmer Anita Rocha da Silveira. The film will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

“Medusa” marks Da Silveira’s follow up to her critically acclaimed feature debut “Kill me Please” which premiered at Venice in 2015 and went on to play at SXSW and New Directors/New Films, among other festivals. Da Silveira was previously at Directors’ Fortnight with her 2012 short “The Living Dead.”

Set in contemporary Brazil, “Medusa” tells the story of 21-year old Mariana, who belongs to a world where women must always look perfect. She and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them, and that includes beating up women who have deviated from the right path. At night, their vigilante girl squad put on masks and hunt down the sinners.

“Medusa” is headlined by newcomers, including Mari Oliveira (“Kill me Please”), Lara Tremouroux,...

By HollywoodNews.com On Thursday 3 June at 11am, Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux presented the Official Selection of the 74th Festival de Cannes at the Ugc Normandie in Paris. The Festival de Cannes will be held from July 06 to 17, 2021 . Discover the list of selected films in Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Midnight Screening, Cannes Premières and Special Screenings. Competition “Ahed’s Knee” Nadav Lapid “Annette” Leos Carax – opening film “Benedetta” Paul Verhoeven “Bergman Island” Mia Hansen-Løve “Casablanca Beats” Nabil Ayouch “Compartment No. 6” Juho Kuosmanen “Drive My Car” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi “Everything Went Fine” Francois Ozon “Flag Day” Sean Penn “The French Dispatch” Wes Anderson “A Hero” Asghar Farhadi “La fracture” Catherine Corsini “Lingui” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun “Memoria” Apichatpong Weerasethakul “Nitram” Justin Kurzel “Paris, 13th District” Jacques Audiard “France” Bruno Dumont “Petrov’s Flu” Kirill Serebrennikov “Red Rocket” Sean Baker “The Restless” Joachim Lafosse “The Story of My Wife” Ildikó Enyedi...

Cannes is back in full force with the announcement of the Official Selection for the film festival’s 74th edition. Taking place in July after having been originally scheduled for May, Cannes is returning with an in-person event after the pandemic forced the festival to cancel in 2020. Spike Lee, who was supposed to head the jury and premiere his “Da 5 Bloods” out of competition last year, is returning to Cannes 2021 as jury president. Films such as Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” were all supposed to premiere at Cannes 2020 but are now confirmed for Cannes 2021 after waiting a year to be unveiled to the world.

Given this is the first Cannes in the Covid pandemic era, there are as many questions about the event’s safety protocols as there are about the lineup. Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux told IndieWire...

At long last, the Cannes Film Festival returns this July. While it remains to be seen just how many journalists outside France will actually be able to attend, their lineup, with a competition jury chaired by Spike Lee, has now being unveiled.

With a few selections already confirmed––such as the highly anticipated trio of Leos Carax’s opener Annette, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta––Pierre Lescure, President of the Cannes Film Festival, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, presented the rest of the Official Selection of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

See the line up below and check back for Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week announcements.

Competition

Annette (Leos Carax)

The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson)

Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)

A Hero (Asghar Farhadi)

Tout S’est Bien Passe (Francois Ozon)

Tre Piani (Nanni Moretti)

Titane (Julia Ducournau)

Red Rocket (Sean Baker)

Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov)

France...

Update: The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its Official Selection lineup for the 2021 event which will run from July 6-17 on the Riviera. Fest President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux made the presentation of 61 titles this morning in Paris, 24 of which are in Competition (four of those are directed by women). Many of the names are familiar including Jacques Audiard, François Ozon, Asghar Farhadi and Nanni Moretti.

Among U.S. filmmakers, we’ll find Wes Anderson and The French Dispatch as expected, along with Sean Penn whose drama Flag Day stars Dylan Penn, Katheryn Winnick, Josh Brolin and Eddie Marsan. There’s also an as-yet unrevealed U.S. studio movie to be screened on the beach while a new section, Cannes Premières, has been created and will feature new works from Andrea Arnold, Hong Sang-soo and Arnaud Desplechin.

As is usual practice, further films will be added in the coming days and weeks.

Competition line-up includes films by Ozon, Farhadi, Ducournau, Weerasethakul, Kurzel, Moretti, Audiard and Hansen-Love.

The Official Selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival has been announced.

Scroll down for full line-up

Festival president Pierre Lescure and general delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference at the Normandie Cinema in Paris.

The selection includes films by Nanni Moretti, Julia Ducournau, Asghar Farhadi, François Ozon, Justin Kurzel, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mia Hansen-Love and Sean Penn. Four of the 24 Competition titles are directed by women.

Frémaux announced a new section for established filmmakers titled Cannes Premieres, which will see the titles get...

Popular French theater director Jean-Christophe Meurisse is making his sophomore film outing with “Bloody Oranges,” a black comedy headlined by Denis Podalydès (“La Belle Epoque”), Blanche Gardin (“Delete History”) and Christophe Paou (“Synonyms”).

Brussels-based outfit Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to the film, which is produced by Rectangle Prods. “(“It Must Be Heaven,” “Climax”) and Mamma Roman.

“Bloody Oranges” marks Meurisse’s follow-up to “Apnee,” which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2016. Meurisse is also a well-known figure in the world of theater, having launched the Chiens de Navarre theater troupe.

“Bloody Oranges” takes place in contemporary France and weaves the stories of a retired couple overwhelmed by debt trying to win a dance contest, a minister of economy who is suspected of tax evasion, a teenage girl coming across a sexual maniac and young lawyer trying to climb the social ladder. When the shoe drops, the...

Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou, Vincent Dedienne, Blanche Gardin and Denis Podalydès, all star in the cast of this Mamma Roman and Rectangle production, set to be sold by Best Friend Forever. After kicking off on 26 October, filming on Oranges sanguines, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s second feature film after Apnée (discovered in a Special Screening in Cannes’ Critics’ Week 2016), is scheduled to wrap on 2 December. Also known for being a stage director for his theatre company Les Chiens de Navarre, the filmmaker gathered together a cast including Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou (highly acclaimed for his performance in Stranger by the Lake), youngster Lilith Grasmug (Sophia Antipolis), Frédéric Blin, Olivier Saladin (whom he previously worked with on Apnée), Lorella Cravotta (Romantics Anonymous), Vincent Dedienne, Blanche Gardin...

Following the unveiling of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival line-up, the Critics’ Week sidebar has now revealed their slate. As usual, there are a lot of discoveries to be had, with six of main selection being first features and four sophomore effort. Notably, Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher) will screen his new short From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer while Chloë Sevigny will premiere her new film Kitty. Check out the full line-up, along with the trailer for the Un Certain Regard title Apprentice.

Feature Films In Competition

ALBÜM Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Turkey)

Diamond Island Davy Chou (Cambodia/France)

Raw (Grave) Julia Ducournau (France)

Mimosas Oliver Laxe (Spain)

One Week And A Day (Shavua Ve Yom) Asaph Polonsky (Israel)

Tramontane Vatche Boulghourjian (Lebanon)

A Yellow Bird K. Rajagopal (Singapore)

Special Screenings

Opening Film

In Bed With Victoria (Victoria) Justine Triet (France)

Closing Films

Smile (Bonne Figure) Sandrine Kiberlain (France)

En...

The lineup for the 2016 Cannes Critics' Week has been announced.Opening FilmIn Bed with Victoria (Justine Triet): Victoria Spick, a criminal lawyer in a total sentimental void, meets at a wedding her friend Vincent and Sam, a former drug dealer she got out business. The next day, Vincent is accused of attempted murder by his girlfriend. The victim's dog is the only witness. Reluctantly, Victoria accepts to defend Vincent, while she hires Sam as an au pair. This is just the beginning of troubled times for Victoria.CompetitionAlbüm (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu): A couple in their late 30’s sets out to prepare a fake photo album of a pseudo pregnancy period in order to prove their biological tie to the baby they’re planning adopt.Diamond Island (Davy Chou): Bora, an 18-year-old, leaves his village to work on the construction sites of Diamond Island, a project for an...

Justine Triet’s In Bed With Victoria to open Critics’ Week; Chloë Sevigny’s Kitty one of three closing films. Scroll down for full list

Cannes Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features, has unveiled the line-up for its 55th edition (May 12-20), following the announcement of the festival’s Official Selection last week.

The parallel section will open with Justine Triet’s comedy-drama In Bed With Victoria, which centres on a beautiful Parisian criminal lawyer in her late 30s who is a self-centred workaholic and sex addict, played by Virginie Efira.

It marks the second feature from French filmmaker Triet, whose Cesar-nominated Age of Panic opened in the Acid section in 2013, and is handled by Indie Sales with French distribution by Le Pacte.

In total, 1,100 features were submitted for consideration.

The seven features chosen to play in competition represent a mix of titles from Turkey, France and Spain to Cambodia, Israel, Lebanon...