DAILY FILMS FOR CANNES MAY 16TH IN COMPETITION
IN COMPETITION
ALL OF A SUDDEN by HAMAGUCHI RYUSUKE at 8:00
Runtime: 3h16
Director of a care facility for the elderly, Marie-Lou strives to introduce an innovative care philosophy based on listening and respecting residents’ dignity, despite resistance from part of her staff. Her encounter with Mari, a Japanese theater director battling cancer, will profoundly reshape her path. By forming a deep, supportive friendship, the two women join forces in a shared struggle to “make the impossible possible.”
GENTLE MONSTER by MARIE KREUTZER at 12:00
Runtime: 1h54
Lucy, a concert pianist, has just relocated her family from the city to a country house in the hope of easing her husband Philip’s severe burnout. Before they have a chance to set up their new home, an early morning police visit tears their world apart. Isolated and desperate to protect her young son, Lucy must face the situation alone, trapped between the man she loves and the fear of what he may have done.
SHEEP IN THE BOX by KOREEDA HIROKAZU at 15:00
Runtime: 2h06
In the not-so-distant future, a grieving couple who has lost their son takes into their lives a humanoid with the same appearance and voice as their late child.
THE BELOVED by RODRIGO SOROGOYEN at 18:15
Runtime: 2h15
The acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez is a legend both for his films and for his past marked by violence and excess. For his new project, he offers his daughter Emilia a role under the pretext of helping her with her stalled acting career. Living together on set will foster a closeness they haven’t shared for years, but it will also reopen old wounds that never healed.
PAPER TIGER by JAMES GRAY at 21:45
Runtime: 1h55
In James Gray’s deeply felt and intense drama, two brothers become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through the dangerous world of the Russian mafiya, family bonds begin to fray with life-altering consequences.
CANNES PREMIERE
REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION by PEGAH AHANGARANI at 15:15
Runtime: 1h35
Through five portraits of relatives and mentors, five expressions of resistance, Pegah Ahangarani sketches her life story. Drawing from personal archives, home videos, street protests footage, newspapers, and recorded voices, she retraces more than 40 years of Iran’s history. From the early days of 1979, until the war that began in 2026, she pieces together intimate and collective memories, forming the portrait of a country shaped by political repression and in constant hope for a revolution.
VISITATION by VOLKER SCHLÖNDORFF at 19:15
Runtime: 1h58
At the heart of VISITATION is a place: a house on a lake near Berlin, where three families live from the 1930s until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Jewish family is forced to sell their house. An architect builds a house in the Bauhaus style and, after the war, tries to realize in East Berlin what was denied him under the Nazis: to finally build on the GDR’s major construction projects. After his escape to the West, the house becomes a refuge for a writer couple upon their return from Soviet exile. VISITATION tells the story of twelve people who dream of a home. But world history does not spare their small shore. The house remains nearly untouched by the passions and fates of its inhabitants.
LES MATINS MERVEILLEUX by AVRIL BESSON at 19:30
Runtime: 1h27
With old disco records in the boot of her Twingo, barely recovered from her grandmother’s death, Charlie drives.She doesn’t yet know that these records will revive her mother’s dance moves in the tearful eyes of Titou, a dreamy wine merchant. Nor does she know that a deserted Mediterranean beach will be where she meets Marina, who dreams of freedom in the village pizzeria.
FULL PHIL by QUENTIN DUPIEUX at 00:30
Runtime: 1h18
Philip Doom, a wealthy American business magnate, tries to reconnect with his daughter Madeleine during an opulent trip to Paris. But French cuisine, a 1950s horror film, and an invasive hotel employee soon threaten to disrupt the smooth running of their stay.
UN CERTAIN REGARD
A GIRL’S STORY by JUDITH GODRÈCHE at 11:15
Runtime: 1h57
Annie Ernaux is invited to sign her latest book in the city of her childhood, Rouen. As she travels there, she is overcome with vertigo and is plunged back into her first night with a man. A night whose shockwave spread violently through her body and across the rest of her life…
FOREVER YOUR MATERNAL ANIMAL by VALENTINA MAUREL at 14:00
Runtime: 1h40
After years in Europe, Elsa, 28, returns to Costa Rica and reunites with her younger sister Amalia, 20, who is drifting into a path as esoteric as it is existential. While their father Nahuel seeks reassurance through a series of romantic conquests and their mother Isabel immerses herself in republishing the erotic poems of her youth, Elsa hesitates: should she try to save a sister who refuses to be saved, or flee in turn
CANNES CLASSICS
THE HOUSE OF THE ANGEL by LEOPOLDO TORRE NILSSON at 14:00
Runtime: 1h16
A 14-year-old girl in the midst of her sexual awakening is dominated by her mother, a religious fanatic who imposes penances for her “sins” and fears divine punishment. Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 1957.
REPORT TO MOTHER by JOHN ABRAHAM at 15:45
Runtime: 1h55
Iconoclastic filmmaker John Abraham’s last film was produced by the Odessa Collective, a group of film enthusiasts, who travelled from village to village seeking contributions from local people to finance the film. Purushan sets out for Delhi promising his mother to write to her. On the way, he finds a dead body identified as Hari’s and decides to go to Hari’s house to inform his mother of her son’s death, collecting a motley group of comrades en route that swells into a crowd. Set against the backdrop of social and political ferment in Kerala in the 1970s, the film unfolds through stunning black and white imagery as a letter from a son to his mother through a deeply intimate journey through the landscape of Kerala that delves into the political history of the state.
STAGING LIFE by FRANCESCO ZIPPEL at 18:30
Runtime: 1h40
Vittorio De Sica – Staging Life retraces the life, work, and legacy of one of the greatest masters of world cinema, returning to the very heart of his vision: the ability to transform life into narrative and human experience into image. Through unprecedented access to the De Sica family, never-before-seen archival materials, and the voices of contemporary artists and filmmakers from around the world, the film composes an intimate and multifaceted portrait of an author who transformed the observation of reality into universal emotion. More than a celebration, the film is a journey into the man, the artist, and the striking modernity of a gaze whose vitality continues to illuminate cinema and our way of looking at the world.
TWO WOMEN by VITTORIO DE SICA at 20:45
Runtime: 1h41
Summer 1943. The young widow Cesira and her daughter Rosetta take refuge in a small village to escape Rome and the Allied bombings. There they meet Michele, an idealistic student.
SÉANCES DU LENDEMAIN
CLUB KID by JORDAN FIRSTMAN at 8:30
Runtime: 2h06
A washed-up party promoter is forced to turn his life around when an unexpected visitor arrives.
THINK GOOD by GÉRALDINE NAKACHE 13:00
Runtime: 1h34
When Gil meets Jacques, their love seems irresistible. But the intensity of the early days gives way to a relationship where she feels increasingly trapped, to the point of losing her bearings. Jacques reassures her: if she thinks the right way, only good things will happen to her. Little by little, Gil realizes the insidious control he exerts over her life…
PROPELLER ONE-WAY NIGHT COACH by JOHN TRAVOLTA at 16:00
Runtime: 1h01
Set in the golden age of aviation, a young airplane enthusiast Jeff (played by newcomer Clark Shotwell) and his mother (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett) set off on a one-way cross country odyssey to Hollywood, which transforms a simple flight into the trip of a lifetime. Between airline meals, charming flight attendants (played by Ella Bleu Travolta and Olga Hoffman), unexpected stopovers, larger-than-life passengers, and a thrilling glimpse at first class, the journey unfolds in moments both magical and unexpected, charting the course for the boy’s future.
CONGO BOY by RAFIKI FARIALA at 17:50
Runtime: 1h35
Bangui, Central African Republic. 17 year-old Robert dreams of a career in music, but civil war is tearing the country apart. When both his parents are thrown into prison, he is left to look after his four younger siblings on his own, juggling daily life, odd jobs, school exams and concert stages, determined to follow his dream.
GENTLE MONSTER by MARIE KREUTZER at 21:30
Runtime: 1h54
Lucy, a concert pianist, has just relocated her family from the city to a country house in the hope of easing her husband Philip’s severe burnout. Before they have a chance to set up their new home, an early morning police visit tears their world apart. Isolated and desperate to protect her young son, Lucy must face the situation alone, trapped between the man she loves and the fear of what he may have done.
