Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Lineup Includes Michel Gondry’s First Film in Seven Years

Samantha Bergeson
Updated ·3 min read
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The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup has been unveiled ahead of this year’s festival.

Set for May 16 through May 27, the Directors’ Fortnight will debut 20 feature films and 10 short films this year.

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Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” is the opening night selection. The film centers on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman who was convicted of multiple armed robberies and later murdered.

Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s “In Our Day” will conclude the festival. The feature stars Kim Minhee and Ki Joobong in parallel stories of cat owners grappling with their felines’ respective mortality.

Directors’ Fortnight highlights also include Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s French comedy “The Book of Solutions,” starring Pierre Niney as a filmmaker with writer’s block. The film marks “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Gondry’s first feature in seven years.

“Good Time” director of photography Sean Price William makes his directorial feature debut with “The Sweet East” road trip drama about a woman who explores cults in America. Berlinale Silver Bear winner Joanna Arnow’s BDSM comedy “The Feeling That the Time For Doing Something Has Passed” is executive produced by Sean Baker and boasts a script supported by the Berlinale Script Station, Gotham Week 2021, and When East Meets West.

The 2023 Directors’ Fortnight marks a special screening for late Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s 1993 film  “Abraham’s Valley” in honor of its 30th anniversary.

The Directors’ Fortnight program launched in 1969 as a parallel event to Cannes; the Fortnight is overseen by the French Directors Guild, Société des Réalisateurs de Films. Incoming delegate general Julien Rejl leads this year’s selection, with the 2023 programming under new French name Quinzaine des Cinéastes to be more gender inclusive. Seven out of the 21 filmmakers featured are women.

Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé will receive the section Carrosse d’Or honorary award at this year’s festival.

See the full lineup below.

COURTS MÉTRAGES / SHORT FILMS

AXXAM YAṚƔA, MAQAṚ ANSAḤMU (The House Is on Fire, Might as Well Get Warm / La maison brûle, autant se réchauffer) de Mouloud Aït Liotna

DANS LA TÊTE UN ORAGE (A Storm Inside) de Clément Pérot

IL COMPLEANNO DI ENRICO (The Birthday Party / L’Anniversaire d’Enrico) de Francesco Sossai

J’AI VU LE VISAGE DU DIABLE (I Saw the Face of the Devil) de Julia Kowalski

LEMON TREE de Rachel Walden

MARGARETHE 89 de Lucas Malbrun

MAST-DEL de Maryam Tafakory

OYU (Hot Water / Eau chaude) de Atsushi Hirai

THE RED SEA MAKES ME WANNA CRY de Faris Alrjoob

XIA RI FU BEN (Talking to the River) de Yue Pan

LONGS MÉTRAGES / FEATURE FILMS

VAL ABRAÃO (Val Abraham / Abraham’s Valley) de Manoel de Oliveira

LE PROCÈS GOLDMAN (The Goldman Case) de Cédric Kahn – film d’ouverture

AGRA de Kanu Behl

L’AUTRE LAURENS (The Other Laurens) de Claude Schmitz

BÊN TRONG VỎ KÉN VÀNG (Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell) de Thien An Pham – premier long métrage

BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY de Elene Naveriani

BLAZH (Grace / La Grâce) de Ilya Povolotsky – premier long métrage

CONANN (She Is Conann) de Bertrand Mandico

CREATURA de Elena Martín Gimeno

DÉSERTS de Faouzi Bensaïdi

IN FLAMES de Zarrar Kahn – premier long métrage

LÉGUA de Filipa Reis & João Miller Guerra

LE LIVRE DES SOLUTIONS (The Book of Solutions) de Michel Gondry

MAMBAR PIERRETTE de Rosine Mbakam

RIDDLE OF FIRE (Conte de feu) de Weston Razooli – premier long métrage

THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED de Joanna Arnow – premier long métrage

THE SWEET EAST de Sean Price Williams

UN PRINCE (A Prince) de Pierre Creton

XIAO BAI CHUAN (A Song Sung Blue) de Zihan Geng – premier long métrage

WOO-RI-UI-HA-RU (In Our Day) de Hong Sang-soo – film de clôture

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