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Actress Vicky Krieps and filmmaker Maimouna Doucoure are among the jury members for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Also joining are Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

Xavier Dolan was announced as jury president earlier this year.

The quintet will watch 18 films as part of the Un Certain Regard selection, including eight debut films.

Last year’s Un Certain Regard jury, headed by John C. Reilly, awarded six prizes including the main award to Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex.

This year’s Un Certain Regard...

The sea has been providing sustenance to man ever since the dawn of his existence, but legend has it that it can become his grave as well if he doesn’t tread a righteous path. Hawa, the new Bangladeshi film by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, follows fishermen on their voyage to the sea and the mystery slowly morphs into an atmospheric horror film. I say horror because the utter isolation of the group’s boat in the sea, simmering antagonisms coupled with the mythical supernatural element in the movie, give it that color. There aren’t the usual jump scares in this movie, and the film is definitely a slow burn, but it lures the viewer with its rhythmic tone and mysterious character introduction.

The plot revolves around a group of fishermen, led by the veteran Chan Manjhi, who venture into the sea for fishing, but soon, a woman is trapped in their net.

SonyLIV has acquired exclusive streaming rights to acclaimed Bangladeshi films “Hawa” and “Saturday Afternoon” from Reliance Entertainment and Continental Entertainment Pte Ltd (Cepl).

Directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, “Hawa” follows the journey of an all-men team on a fishing trawler, whose routine is disrupted when they haul in a mysterious catch. The cast is led by hugely popular star Chanchal Chowdhury and includes Nazifa Tushi, Sariful Islam Razz, Sumon Anowar, Nasir Uddin Khan and Shohel Mondol. The film was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars and is one of the highest grossers from the country having also found distribution in India, Singapore and the Middle East. It will premiere July 7 on SonyLIV.

“Saturday Afternoon,” Bengali-and-English-language film directed by Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, takes its cue from the brutal terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka in 2016, which took place on a quiet Saturday and left more than 20 people dead.

‘Sulak’ is the first production from Alain Goldman’s Pitchipoï Productions.

Amazon Prime Video France is reteaming with director Melanie Laurent for the feature Sulak and has greenlit five new French feature films and three original series. Laurent directed Amazon’s first French-language original The Mad Women’s Ball in 2021.

Sulak will star newcomer Lucas Bravo as Bruno Sulak, a notorious real-life French criminal known for his non-violent heists on multiple jewelry stores in the 1980s. Sulak managed to escape from prison several times in order to reunite with his lover and accomplice, becoming public enemy number one in the process.

Event Outline

The Osaka Asian Film Festival aims to facilitate human resources development and exchange, to invigorate the Osaka economy, and to increase the city’s appeal, through providing opportunities to watch excellent Asian films, supporting filmmaking in Osaka and attracting filmmakers from Asian countries and regions to Osaka. Promoting Osaka worldwide as a gateway city for Asian films, and engaging with many people from the fields of culture, art, education, tourism and business, from Osaka and all of Asia, Oaff works as an open platform to contribute to the development of Osaka and cinema.

Marking its 18th edition this year, Oaff, under programming director Teruoka Sozo, will again select high-quality Asian films. The Competition section, which receives increased recognition every year, will again select films previously unreleased in Japan. The regular sections, Special Screenings and Indie Forum, and other special programs will also feature a wide variety of excellent Asian films.

The Osaka Asian Film Festival will return in March for its 18th edition with a lineup of current Asian feature and short films and a spotlight on works from Hong Kong.

The competition section, which selects from films that are currently unreleased in Japan, numbers 13 titles. These include: Kai Ko’s “Bad Education,” “December” from Japan-based Indian director Anshul Chauhan, and two Indian-made films Rima Das’ “Tora’s Husband” and Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy’s “Max, Min and Meowzaki.”

The indie section comprises a mix of Japanese feature and short films from challenging or emerging talents, with a winner set to receive the separate Japan Cuts prize.

A Spotlight section of other independent films by up-and-coming directors includes: Martika Ramirez Escobar’s “Leonor Will Never Die,” Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s Bangladesh-France production “Hawa,” Thitipong Kerdtongtawee’s “Omg! Oh My Girl” and documentary “Jiseok.”

The Hong Kong spotlight, consisting of five titles, cuts...