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Cannes Critics’ Week, now in its 63rd year, is always an opportunity to explore uncharted work from new and emerging filmmakers — and away from the glitter and glitz of the Croisette, where the main competition bows. Recent Critics’ Week Grand Prize winners have included everything from “Tiger Stripes,” a Malaysian coming-of-age debut opening in stateside theaters later this month, to 2019’s honoree “I Lost My Body,” the animated favorite that went on to be nominated for an Oscar.

Coming up in the Special Screenings category of Critics’ Week, Alexis Langlois makes their feature directorial debut with “Queens of Drama,” a French pop/punk musical that brings a mid-aughts camp sensibility to Cannes this year. Below, IndieWire shares an exclusive clip for the film along with a first-look image. “Queens of Drama” premieres at Critics’ Week on Saturday, May 18, with Charades handling sales.

Per the synopsis, in 2005, Mimi Madamour, the young pop idol,...

Willem Dafoe and Michael Weber among creative advisors helping artistic director Athina Rachel Tsangari.

Thirteen projects from promising filmmakers selected for the Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs received guidance from mentors such as actor Willem Dafoe, Arte France’s Olivier Pere and The Match Factory founder Michael Weber when they took place in Greece from May 29-June 5.

The Labs were held in Costa Navarino under the artistic direction of Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier and Trigonometry.

The Labs offer international filmmakers the opportunity to work on their first or second feature script, as well as workshop...

Alexis Langlois won both the Junior Jury Award and the Silver Pardino in the Leopards of Tomorrow section at the Locarno Intl. Film Festival in 2021 with his meta, genre-bending fantasy short “The Demons of Dorothy.” Now, the film looks to close out an impressive international run with its streaming premiere at Unifrance Rendez-Vous’ MyFrenchFilmFestival.

Semi-autobiographical, the bathed-in-pink, over-the-top action short features demons, hallucinations and blood-thirsty biker lesbians that fight against the patriarchy. In the short, Dorothy (Justine Langlois), the film’s protagonist, is a queer filmmaker struggling against censorship, closed-minded financing bodies and her own personal insecurities. When stumped by a screenplay, her demons take physical form and torment her through the night, offering to make her wildest dreams come true if only she will start making more mainstream films.

Melodrama and Les Films du Poisson produced the short, which featured a cast of Langlois regulars who are quickly becoming...