The 77th Cannes edition will be held from May 14-25th, 2024 in France.
By Hope Ibiale
The organisers of the 77th edition of the Cannes Festival have announced some films set to screen at the world-renowned film festival. Amongst these films, seven films from African filmmakers were selected.
This selection includes works of Somalian-born Mo Harawe, Egyptian Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, French-Moroccan screenwriter, director, and producer, Hamich Benlarbi, French-Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan, Zambian-Welsh director and screenwriter, Rungano Nyoni, Egyptian artist and film director, Hala Elkoussy, and Franco-Moroccan director, Nabil Ayouch.
Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise and Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, were selected in the Un Certain Regard category. At the same time, Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda will make a Cannes premiere, and Elkoussy’s East of Noon was selected in the Director’s Fortnight lineup. Riyadh and Amir’s Rafaat Einy ll Sama (The Brink of Madness), Benlarbi’s La Mer Au Loin (Across the Sea), and Benestan’s Animale have been selected for Cannes’ International Critics Week.
Also selected for screening is Haitian filmmaker, Raoul Peck’s documentary, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, in the special screening category.
African writers and film producers are not left out of the mix, as Marie Ndiaye’s book, La vengeance m’appartient (Vengeance is Mine) was selected for Cannes annual “Shoot the Book” initiative. Senegal film producer, Chloe Ortole, was chosen for the New Producers Room, created to support and showcase ten promising producers during the film festival.
Their films will be screened alongside films like Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Miguel Gomez’s Grand Tour, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer, Daniel Auteuil’s Le Fil, and many others. The 77th Cannes edition will be held from May 14-25th, 2024 in France.
While speaking about this year’s selection with Variety Magazine, Cannes Film Festival director, Thierry Fremaux stated, “Choosing a film is always taking a risk, especially since choosing a film means renouncing another one — this year, there are more than 2,000 films submitted. And I’ll say it again, we see them all. You won’t believe me but we, like filmmakers, never know how a film will be received before the first screening. It’s what makes Cannes magical”.
Created in 1946, the Cannes Film Festival is an annual film festival held in France. Over the years, the festival has previewed different films and documentaries from all over the world. These films are classified into the special screenings category, the Cannes premiere, midnight screenings, out-of-competition, Un Certain Regard, and In Competition. There are also programmes like the Director’s Fortnight, Shoot the Book, International Critics Week, exhibitions, New Producers Room, producers network, masterclasses, and many more.
See the full list of selections here.