Directors’ Fortnight, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival overseen by the French Directors Guild, has announced its 57th edition lineup. The selection features 28 projects, including Cameroonian-French director Thomas Ngijol’s Indomptables and Moroccan-French director Robin Campillo’s Enzo.
Enzo opens the festival on May 14. It is the story of a 16-year-old boy who defies his family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship. There, he meets a Ukrainian colleague who shakes up his world.
Julien Rejl, artistic director of Directors’ Fortnight, praised the film, saying, “It’s a magnificent tale of adolescence focused on the character of an elusive young man. It’s a film that moved us deeply, and I felt there was no other place for it than to present it as the opening of this fortnight.”
Indomptables follows Commissioner Billong during an investigation into the murder of a police officer in Yaoundé, as he struggles to maintain order within his family and on the streets. “It’s a portrait,” said Rejl, “as we’ve never seen before, of Cameroonian society, of police violence, of family relationships, and a certain image of patriarchy.”
Other films in the lineup include The President’s Cake by Iraqi director Hasan Hadi, Girl On Edge by Chinese director Jinghao Zhou, and Peak Everything by French-Canadian director Anne Émond. The section will come to a close with the sreening of Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year.
According to Rejl, the Directors’ Fortnight received 1,605 feature-length films and 2,534 short and medium-length films for consideration this year. The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight will run from May 14 to 24.
Here’s a full list of selected films for the 57th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight:
SHORT & MEDIUM LENGTH FILMS
- +10K by Gala Hernández López
- BEFORE THE SEA FORGETS by Ngọc Duy Lê
- THE BODY by Louris van de Geer
- BREAD WILL WALK (Le pain se lève) by Alex Boya
- CŒUR BLEU (Blue Heart) by Samuel Suffren
- KARMASH (کرمش) by Aleem Bukhari
- LOYNES by Dorian Jespers
- LA MORT DU POISSON (Death of the Fish) by Eva Lusbaronian
- NERVOUS ENERGY by Eve Liu
- WHEN THE GEESE FLEW by Arthur Gay
FEATURE FILMS
- ENZO by Laurent Cantet, directed by Robin Campillo – opening film
- AMOUR APOCALYPSE (Peak Everything) by Anne Émond
- BRAND NEW LANDSCAPE (見はらし世代) by Yuiga Danzuka – first feature film
- CLASSE MOYENNE (The Party’s Over!) de Antony Cordier
- DANGEROUS ANIMALS by Sean Byrne
- LA DANSE DES RENARDS (Wild Foxes) by Valéry Carnoy – first feature film
- L’ENGLOUTIE (The Girl in the Snow) by Louise Hémon – first feature film
- LES FILLES DÉSIR (The Girls We Want) by Prïncia Car – first feature film
- GIRL ON EDGE (Hua yang shao nv sha ren shi jian) by Jinghao Zhou – first feature film
- INDOMPTABLES by Thomas Ngijol
- KOKUHO by Lee Sang-il
- LUCKY LU by Lloyd Lee Choi – first feature film
- MILITANTROPOS by Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova & Simon Mozgovyi
- MIROIRS No. 3 (Mirrors No. 3 ) by Christian Petzold
- LA MORT N’EXISTE PAS (Death Does Not Exist) by Félix Dufour-Laperrière
- THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE (Mamlaket al-Qasab) by Hasan Hadi – first feature film
- QUE MA VOLONTÉ SOIT FAITE (Her Will Be Done) by Julia Kowalski
- SORRY, BABY by Eva Victor – first feature film – closing film
