From ‘Megalopolis’ To ‘Maria’, ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ To ‘Joker: Folie A Deux’: 63 Movies From Around The World That Could Light Up Film Festivals In 2024

As we welcome in the New Year, we can reveal our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we think could grace the festival circuit in 2024. We’ve stuck to our criteria that the project must already be in production and have not already been announced for a festival. More than 70% of our selections last year went on to debut at a major festival. Those that didn’t were largely delayed by the strike or are still in post-production. If the titles below make the cut, it will be a thrilling year on the festival circuit once again.

Megalopolis
Expectations are high that Francis Ford Coppola will deliver his long-awaited $100+ million passion project in 2024. The sci-fi drama charts the story of an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. The cast featuring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire and Forest Whitaker would make for one of the starriest red carpets of the year. Exactly 45-years after he clinched the Palme d’Or with a work in progress version of Apocalypse Now, will the five-time Oscar winner be back on the Croisette again?

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Blitz
Steve McQueen’s Blitz has popped up on a few of these lists in the past few years. But earlier this year at Cannes, where he debuted his four-hour doc Occupied City, McQueen signaled that the pic would launch in 2024. The film stars Saoirse Ronan and follows the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II. People with knowledge of the pic have described it as a highly inventive and affecting Dickensian tale. Cast also comprises Elliott Heffernan, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, Stephen Graham, singer-songwriter Paul Weller, and Kathy Burke.

Oh, Canada
Some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, director and screenwriter Paul Schrader and actor Richard Gere reunite for this drama adapted from Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a man who fled to Canada in the 1960s to avoid the draft. Gere stars as the man, now a famed documentary filmmaker, as he takes stock of that decision. Cast also features Jacob Elordi, Kristine Froseth and Michael Imperioli. Schrader has premiered his last two films The Card Counter and Master Gardener at Venice.

Flint Strong
The story of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan who trained to become the first woman in her country’s history to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. Acclaimed DoP Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Fruitvale Station) directs from a Barry Jenkins script.

Wolfs
Scheduled for release in September, this George Clooney and Brad Pitt-starrer centers on two professional fixers who find themselves hired for the same job. Amy Ryan and Austin Abrams also star. Pic is for Apple TV+, with Sony Pictures distributing in theaters as it did with Napoleon. Jon Watts wrote and directed.

Quand Vient L’Automne
Prolific French director François Ozon has been shooting his 24th feature in Burgundy this fall. Per Ozon, the drama is inspired by a childhood memory and revolves around a crime family dinner, “which will not be bloody but rather tender and complex”. Announced cast members include Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko. Ozon has played in Competition at Berlinale six times, five times at Cannes and three times in Venice. His last feature The Crime Is Mine skipped the A-list festival circuit but went on to be one of his most successful at the French box office to date.

The Most Precious Of Cargoes
Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius makes his animation feature debut with this moving World War Two tale about the fate of a baby boy who is thrown from an Auschwitz-bound train by his French-Jewish father as it crosses a Polish forest. A childless woodcutter’s wife discovers the bundle and raises the child as her own against her husband’s wishes. The touching drama is adapted from the eponymous novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Hazanavicius. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2024.

_Emmanuelle

Emmanuelle
Catapulted into the international limelight by her Venice Golden Lion win for abortion drama Happening in 2021, French director Audrey Diwan will hit the festival circuit again in 2024 with her reboot of Emmanuelle Arsan’s iconic 1967 erotic novel. Noémie Merlant leads the cast as Emmanuelle, joined by Oscar nominee Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) as the male lead, Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang (Money Heist) and Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs). Per Diwan, the contemporary movie will take place in a luxury hotel where Emmanuelle works and that it will “explore her quest for pleasure”. It remains to be seen whether the director will show loyalty to Venice or opt to unveil the film on the home turf of Cannes.

Modi
Johnny Depp explores the tumultuous life of painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, with Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio in the titular role, for his second feature directorial credit after The Brave. The movie chronicles Modigliani’s life in Paris in World War One, where he frequents a bohemian set, featuring artists Maurice Utrillo and Chaim Soutine as well as English muse and lover Beatrice Hastings and Polish art dealer and friend Leopold Zborowski. Al Pacino co-stars as influential collector Maurice Gangnat.

Nightbitch
An artist (Amy Adams) who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom seeks a new chapter in her life and encounters just that, when her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form. A Searchlight Pictures charge from director Marielle Heller.

Inside
Australian director Charles Williams won the Palme d’Or for short film All These Creatures in 2018 and anticipation is growing for this crime thriller feature debut. Newcomer Vincent Miller plays a young man who is transferred from a juvenile to adult prison in Melbourne, where he is taken under the wing of Australia’s most despised criminal and a soon-to-be-paroled inmate, played by Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis respectively.

Mother Mary
David Lowery’s latest for A24 follows the relationship between a fictional musician and a famous fashion designer. Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel star as lovers battling fame in their own industries. Lowery is best known for movies including Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story, The Old Man & The Gun and The Green Knight.

Shirley
Netflix’s long-gestating Shirley Chisholm biopic could finally see the light of day in 2024. Regina King is starring as the trailblazing political icon, who was the first Black Congresswoman and first Black woman to run for President. She is joined in the cast by the late Lance Reddick (John Wick 1-4), Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) and Christina Jackson (Swagger). John Ridley is director and writer.

It’s Not Me
Leos Carax’s new work is described as a free-form self-portrait, revisiting his 40-year filmography. It reunites him with regular collaborators actor Denis Lavant and cinematographer Caroline Champetier. Carax opened Cannes in 2021 with musical film Annette, for which he won Best Director. This more personal work could also find a berth somewhere on the Croisette next May.

Harvest
Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari was last on the festival circuit with 2015 feature since Chevalier. Very little is known about new film Harvest, which was largely worked on without much publicity. However, we understand the feature has now been completed, and Tsangari has her eyes set on a festival debut in the new year. The feature is produced by Ken Loach and Rebecca O’Brien’s Sixteen Films and stars Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling. The only synopsis out there right is short: The pic follows the villager’s reaction to three newcomers, who become scapegoats in a time of economic turmoil.

Spectateurs
French director Arnaud Desplechin reunites with Mathieu Amalric to revisit the character of Paul Dédalus, who previously appeared in My Sex Life… or How I Got into an Argument (1996) and My Golden Days (2016). The new and reportedly final chapter in the series will revolve around a movie theatre from the 1960s to the present day. Desplechin has played in Competition at Cannes seven times to date.

_Maria

Maria
Angelina Jolie plays legendary opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain’s biopic, exploring her tumultuous life and tragic story, via flashbacks during her final days in the 1970s Paris. The film, which was able to continue shooting during the strikes thanks to a SAG-AFTRA agreement, also features Pierfrancesco Favino (The Hummingbird), Alba Rohrwacher (La Chimera), Haluk Bilginer (Winter Sleep), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) and Valeria Golino (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) in the cast.

The Piano Lesson
This Netflix drama is set during the aftermath of the Great Depression and features Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Till’s Danielle Deadwyler. Malcolm Washington’s movie follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. Pic is adapted from the 1987 play of the same name.

Musk
Alex Gibney is plenty busy as always and in this documentary he tackles the controversial Tesla and X owner. Musk is being called a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the businessman, who generated headlines aplenty throughout 2023. HBO Documentary Films holds North American TV and streaming rights, with Black Bear International recently selling international rights to Universal Pictures Content Group.

Thank You For Banking With Us!
Palestinian director Laila Abbas takes a pot shot at sexist inheritance laws in the West Bank in this comedy-drama about two warring sisters who unite when their father dies suddenly leaving behind a large sum of money. Under local law, their brother is due half the money, leaving them with a quarter share each. The sisters conspire to get their hands on the inheritance money before the brother learns of their father’s death.

The Balconettes
Celine Sciamma has reteamed with Noémie Merlant, star of her Cannes 2019 Palme d’Or contender Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, for this comedy horror picture. Set against the backdrop of a heat wave that brings a Marseille neighbourhood to the boil, the film revolves around three roommates who gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbours from their balcony, until a late night drink turns into a bloody affair. Tàr supporting actress Merlant wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Sciamma and co-stars with Souheila Yacoub and Sanda Codreanu.

We Shall All Be
Jia Zhangke had a November 10 start date for We Shall Be All, which follows a Chinese woman across the first two decades of the 21st century. Starring Jia’s wife and regular collaborator Zhao Tao, the film marks the Chinese filmmaker’s first fiction feature since Cannes 2018 title Ash Is The Purest White. As the celebrated director told us in October, the film is due to have a complex post-production so it could be tight to be ready this year.

The Order
Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult and Tye Sheridan lead a stellar cast for this crime thriller from Australian True History of the Kelly Gang and Nitram director Justin Kurzel. AGC Studios is financing, producing and selling the thriller, which was a hot package at last year’s EFM. Pic follows an Idaho-based FBI agent (Law) who spots a pattern in recent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations and armored car heists terrorizing communities across the Pacific Northwest.

Orwell
The fascinating life and work of Animal Farm and 1984 scribe George Orwell is explored here in documentary form by Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) and Alex Gibney. Neon has North American rights to Orwell, which will tell the story of the English maverick novelist known for searingly satirical critiques of authoritarianism. Jigsaw Productions, Velvet Films and Anonymous Content are co-producing.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Warner Bros. successfully launched George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road at Cannes in 2015. The studio appears to be plotting a similar strategy for its spin-off, having set a May 24 worldwide release date. Anya Taylor-Joy stars in the prequel as titular Imperator Furiosa, alongside Chris Hemsworth, Alyla Browne and Tom Burke. Per the logline: ‘As the world falls, young Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. She will spend the rest of her life battling to get back home”.

Back to Black
Relative newcomer Marisa Abela reincarnates Amy Winehouse in Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-John’s bio-pic about the tragic singer. Jack O’Connell (Ferrari), Eddie Marsan (Fair Play) and Lesley Manville (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) also feature in the cast. The film will follow Winehouse’s early rise to fame and the release of her ground-breaking studio album, Back to Black, all told from the personal perspective of late artist.

Pink Lady
Israeli director Nir Bergman has gained fame internationally in recent years as co-creator of the original Israeli version of the hit series In Treatment. He returns to the big screen this year with his first feature in four years. Set against the backdrop of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem, the comedy-drama revolves around a young wife and mother who embarks on a journey of self-emancipation on discovering that her husband has been having an affair with his male study partner. Bergman’s last feature Here We Are was among the films in Cannes’ 2020 pandemic era Special Selection.

Anora
Sean baker’s last film Red Rocket premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2021, following an enthusiastic welcome for The Florida Project in parallel section Directors’ Fortnight in 2017. Will his eighth film Anora also make the cut? The Brooklyn-shot romantic comedy features Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan in the cast.

Beetlejuice 2
Tim Burton fans worldwide have been calling for this sequel to his 1988 cult hit for decades. The fantasy horror comedy caper stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe. This isn’t typical festival fare but with a September 2024 U.S. release date set by Warner Bros, a festival launch isn’t inconceivable.

Mouly Surya Duo
After a six-year hiatus, Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya returns this year with two features. The first is Trigger Warning, a mainstream Netflix feature starring Jessica Alba. After that, she returns to her traditional arthouse territory with Perang Kota, a war pic that follows a 35-year-old former fighter and violinist who devises a plan to blow up a movie theater, a gathering place for British NICA officials and the Dutch. With two features on the market, Surya will likely pop up at least once on the festival circuit. She made her debut at Cannes in 2017 with Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts.

Untitled Apichatpong Weerasethakul Movie
Thai filmmaker and artist Weerasethakul picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2021 with Memoria starring Tilda Swinton, and according to the actress, the pair have already reunited on a new feature they spent eight months shooting in 2023. Weerasethakul and Swinton have an almost constant presence on the festival circuit, so this new feature will certainly land in an A-list competition if completed in time.

Reading Lolita In Tehran
Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis’s upcoming feature Reading Lolita In Tehran was a buzzy title at last year’s Cannes market. The pic, an adaptation of Iranian-American writer Azar Nafisi’s classic memoir of the same name, is set after the revolution in Iran as extremism took hold. Nafisi’s memoir tells the autobiographical story of a bold and inspired teacher, who secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. The pic stars Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson), Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) and Mina Kavani (No Bears), making it a hot property for festival programmers.

_{First images from Paolo Sorrentino’s untitled movie}

Untitled Paolo Sorrentino Movie
Italian Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino has returned to his native city of Naples, which remains as yet untitled. The feature revolves around woman called Partenope, after Greek mythology siren connected with the creation of the city, following her trajectory from her birth in 1950 to the current day. The cast features  Gary Oldman, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Peppe Lanzetta, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Stefania Sandrelli, Alfonso Santagata, Nello Mascia and Biagio Izzo. It is a 10th feature for Sorrentino, whose filmography includes his deeply personal film Hand of God and Oscar-winner The Great Beauty.

Hot Milk
She Said and Ida writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2016 novel about the complex relationship between a mother and daughter on holiday in Almeria in Spain. Fiona Shaw plays the wheelchair bound mother opposite Emma Mackey has her long-suffering, directionless daughter, with Vicky Krieps playing an infuriatingly enigmatic traveller who crosses the latter’s path. UK novelist Levy’s work is proving fertile territory for filmmakers, with Justine Anderson’s adaptation of her 2011 novel Swimming Home selected for the 2024 edition of Sundance.

Haunted Heart
Spanish director Fernando Trueba has been on the award and festival circuits this year with feature animation They Shot The Piano Player. He has returned to live action for this new suspenseful love triangle drama, inspired by the novels of Patricia Highsmith and films of Alfred Hitchcock. Aida Folch stars as a young woman who takes a job at a restaurant on a remote island, where she is courted by a Brazilian man, played by Juan Pablo Urrego, but instead falls for the establishment’s mysterious American manager, played by Matt Dillon.

Emilia Perez
After 2021 black-and-white, millennial generation drama Paris, 13th District, Cannes Palme d’Or winner Jacques Audiard’s new musical crime comedy promises to be an altogether more colorful affair. Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascón plays a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes a sex change to escape the law in a cast also featuring Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana.

Passing Dreams
Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi has previously made waves on the festival circuit with works such as the  documentary Letters From Al Yarmouk and drama Falastine Stereo. His new fiction feature captures the contemporary reality of Palestinians through the adventures of a 12-year-old boy as travels from his refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem to Jerusalem and then on to Haifa in pursuit of a beloved homing pigeon.

Six Triple Eight
Tyler Perry has taken on the fascinating story of how America’s 6888th Battalion contributed to the second world war effort in a unique way: by sorting through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail and delivering the mail to soldiers far from home. In the face of discrimination and a vast, unfamiliar country divided by a global conflict, 855 women brought hope to the front lines. Pic stars heavyweights including Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey and Susan Sarandon.

Echo Valley
The in-demand Sydney Sweeney stars in this thriller about the daughter of a horse-trainer coping with personal tragedy. Sweeney stars opposite Julianne Moore and Domhnall Gleeson. Apple TV+’s pic is directed by Michael Pearce (Beast) and penned by Brad Ingelsby.

Borderlands
Eli Roth taps into the universe of the titular space Western-set, sci-fi, action, role-playing video game of the same name for his latest film. Not classic festival fare and it has been a challenged production but its cast featuring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis among others would make for a starry red carpet.

Without Blood
Angelina Jolie’s sixth feature is adapted from Alessandro Baricco’s eponymous short novel, set against the backdrop of an unspecified war and exploring themes of revenge and the destructive nature of conflict. Salma Hayek stars as woman who witnessed the murder of father and brother at the family farmhouse as child, and then years later crosses the path of one of the assailants who let her ago.

Two To One
The presence alone of Anatomy Of A Fall and The Zone Of Interest star Sandra Hüller in the cast of this German post-Berlin Wall fall film, will likely prompt interest from festival programmers. The drama revolves around unemployed turner who discovers millions of defunct East German bank notes after reunification and attempts to bring them back into circulation. It is the second feature from actress Natja Brunckhorst who achieved notoriety as the star of the Christiane F.

Joker: Folie à Deux
The announced October 2024 U.S. release date by Warner Bros. for Todd Phillips’s musical thriller suggests a Venice/TIFF launch for this follow-up to 2019 Venice Golden Lion winner Joker. Joaquin Phoenix returns in the role of DC Comics’s complex baddie, with Lady Gaga in the role of Harley Quinn.

Nosferatu
Robert Eggers long-gestated gothic horror, revisiting the 1922 German original of the same name, stars Bill Skarsgård in the titular role, with Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult also in the cast. Eggers’ penultimate film The Lighthouse world premiered to acclaim in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2019. A U.S. released date of December 25 by Focus Features suggests a fall festival debut is possible.

A Missing Part
Belgian director Guillaume Senez’s first film Keeper world premiered in Locarno in 2015 and then went on to play at TIFF. His sophomore picture Our Struggles debuted to acclaim in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2018. There are now Cannes Official Selection hopes for third feature, reuniting the director with Romain Duris who plays a Frenchman living in Tokyo trying to connect with his nine-year-old daughter following his divorce from this Japanese wife.

Touch 
Deadline reported in December that Focus Features has set a July 12, 2024 U.S. release for Beast and Everest filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur long-awaited adaption of Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling Icelandic novel ‘Touch’. We also had it in our 2023 festival list as there was hope it could launch last year. Ólaffson co-wrote the script with Kormákur. The romantic drama spans several decades and continents as it follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago.

Limonov
Expectations are high that Kirill Serebrennikov’s portrait of radical Russian poet and dissident Eduard Limonov will finally hit the festival circuit this year. Limonov is a controversial figure who grew up in what is now the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and escaped the Soviet Union to head to New York. Ben Whishaw stars as Limonov. Pawel Pawlikowski and Ben Hopkins have penned the script based on the book by Emmanuel Carrère, which chronicles Limonov’s outrageous life as a poet, a butler for a New York millionaire and literary success in Paris. Serebrennikov’s last three features – Tchaikovsky’s Wife, Petrov’s Flu and Leto – have all played in Competition in Cannes.

Perfumed Hill
Abderrahmane Sissako’s drama has been a regular fixture on ‘anticipated movie’ lists. We put the film on our 2023 list on the back of the news that the project had finally began filming at the end of 2022. We hear a 2024 festival splash will now be on the cards. The romance-drama stars Girlhood actress Nina Melo as a young woman who says “no” on her wedding day and leaves the Ivory Coast to start a new life in Guangzhou, China. A decade has now past since Sissako wowed festival crowds with Oscar nominee Timbuktu.

Chocobar
Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel is set to return to the festival circuit after a six-year hiatus. We understand that production on the long-gestating documentary project is finally completed, and Martel is ready to launch the pic in 2024. Martel has described the pic as a “hybrid, creative documentary”, that took more than a decade to research. The film tells the story of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar, who was shot dead, and the removal of his community from their ancestral land in Argentina. The synopsis reads: The work unravels the 500 years of ‘reason’ that led to this shooting, both with a gun and a camera, and contextualizes it in the land tenure system that emerged across Latin America.

Those Who Find Me
After a career-launching debut in 2020 with Beginning, Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili has completed her second feature, Those Who Find Me, and is set to launch in 2024. The film follows Nina, an obstetrician-gynecologist working in the only hospital in a provincial town in Georgia. She is unconditionally devoted to her patients, even if that means crossing the line legally or socially. But after she is accused of negligence, during the following internal investigation, Nina’s personal and professional life will be scrutinized, and she will be forced to question her choices.

On Falling
Hotly anticipated on the debut front is Portuguese-born, Scottish-based filmmaker Laura Carreira, who completed her feature On Falling in Glasgow earlier this year. The film is produced by Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films and Portugal’s BRO Cinema and has support from BFI, BBC Films, Screen Scotland, and ICA. The film is said to follow a Portuguese migrant, who is living in Scotland and struggling to navigate the brutal gig economy. Carreira’s last project, a short titled The Shift, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2020 and was nominated for the European Film Awards and the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.

Untitled Mati Diop Project
A few rumors about a new feature directed by filmmaker Mati Diop have been curling the online blogs. But there has been nothing concrete in the press from Diop. We heard about the project earlier this year and confirmed that it is a feature documentary about the repatriation of African art and treasures stolen from the continent by colonial plunder. Some French commentators suggested the film was set to make a last-minute debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but we understand the film wasn’t ready. Diop was still in post, which would put the pic in a good position to debut on the circuit next year. Atlantics, her last feature, debuted at Cannes in 2019.

Bird
Andrea Arnold, a regular on the European festival circuit, launched production earlier this year on her sixth feature, Bird. Not much is known about the film other than it began production in June and Barry Keoghan And Franz Rogowski star. Across her career, Arnold has debuted four films at Cannes, taking three main competition awards. If Bird is completed in time, it will undoubtedly be a favorite to debut on the Croisette.

We Live In Time
This star-studded productions is the latest feature from Irish filmmaker John Crowley. There is little known about the film’s plot beyond a studio primer that described the pic as a “love story.” Leading the pic are Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. Crowley is directing the feature from a script penned by Nick Payne (Wanderlust). StudioCanal developed the script and is producing with Sunny March. Leah Clarke, Adam Ackland, and Guy Heeley are producers, with Benedict Cumberbatch set as executive producer. A24 has already nabbed North American rights, marking the pic a hot property on the festival circuit when ready.

Zion
First images of Guadeloupe director Nelson Foix’s debut feature wowed participants at the Work-in-Progress showcase of France’s Les Arcs Film Festival in December for its never-seen-before images of his Caribbean Island home. Set against the backdrop of the housing projects of Guadeloupe’s second city of Pointe-à-Pitre, the drama revolves around a small-time drug dealer, who is forced to face up to his deepest fears when a shopping bag containing a baby is left on his doorstep.

Kind of Kindness (aka AND)
Little has been revealed about Yorgo Lanthimos new film other than that it is an anthology film reuniting the director with Poor Things star Emma Stone and also featuring Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie in the cast. Filming was reported to have wrapped its shoot in New Orleans and is in post-production for an end 2024 launch.

Motherhood 
Tunisian-Canadian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur made waves with her 2018 short film Brotherhood, which debuted at TIFF to acclaim in 2018. Expectations are now high for first feature, which was developed with the support of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and recently won the top Work-in-Progress prize at the Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops in the works-in-progress section. The drama focuses on a mother, with gift of prophetic dreams, as she deals with the return of her ISIS fighter son to their remote village with a mysterious pregnant wife.

The End
This post-apocalypse musical marks Joshua Oppenheimer’s first fiction feature after Oscar-nominated documentaries The Act Of Killing (2012) and The Look Of Silence (2014). Tilda Swinton and George MacKay lead the cast as the mother and son of wealthy family living in a palatial palace as a handful of survivors of the end of the world to which they contributed through their involvement in the oil industry. Oppenheimer has said the work is inspired by the “unearned optimism” of the Golden Age of the Broadway musical.

Mickey 17
Loosely adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-fi thriller novel Mickey 7, Mickey 17 marks Bong Joon Ho’s first feature since his Cannes Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning Parasite. Robert Pattinson stars as an ‘expendable’ employee clone who is sent on a danger human mission to colonize the ice world of Niflheim. He is joined in the cast by Toni Collette, Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo.

Queer
Italian director and producer Luca Guadagnino missed out on his Venice opening slot last September with the Challengers after its release was delayed due to Actors, strike. He could be back on the festival circuit this year with Queer, based on an adaptation of William S. Burrough’s 1985 semi-biographical novel by Justin Kuritzkes. Set in 1940s Mexico City, it stars Daniel Craig as an American expat who becomes infatuated with a younger man.

Conclave
All Quiet On The Western Front director Edward Berger’s English-language thriller is based on Robert Harris eponymous novel exploring the secretive world of the Vatican’s Papal conclave charged with selecting the new Pope. Ralph Fiennes stars as the cardinal running the mysterious group in a cast also featuring John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Merab Ninidze, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini.

Little Trouble Girls
Slovenian director Urška Djukić made waves on the festival circuit with her short film Granny’s Sexual Life which won 50 awards, including the 2022 European Film Award for Best Short Film and the César Award 2023 for Best Animated Short film. Expectations are running high for her first film, which was developed with the support of Cannes Cinéfondation Residency. The intimate sexual coming-of-age tale, revolving around a 16-year who joins the choir of her Catholic high school to please her mother, was one of the buzziest projects at the Work-In-Progress showcase of the Les Arc Film Festival in December where it picked up one of the in-kind prizes.

Les Barbares
Julie Delpy’s social satire revolves around a Breton village which is shaken when they volunteer to take in a Ukrainian refugee family but receive a Syrian family instead. The film which shot in Brittany over the summer features Delpy, Sandrine Kiberlain, Laurent Lafitte and Ziad Bakri in the cast. It marks Deply’s seventh film in a filmography which also includes recent feature credits Before Midnight, Lolo and My Zoe.

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