Cannes’ Critics Week is set to kick off its 65th edition with Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated feature “In Waves” and close with Félix de Givry’s coming-of-age drama “Adieu monde cruel.”
Nguyen’s debut feature, “In Waves” will be the first animated film to open the Cannes’ parallel selection which is curated by Ava Cahen and is dedicated to first and second features. The feature – produced by Silex Films and co-produced by Anonymous Content, France 3 Cinema and Panique! — is adapted from illustrator AJ Dungo’s celebrated graphic memoir.
Voiced by Will Sharpe et Stéphanie Hsu, “In Waves” is “a stirring love story between a young male skater and a young female surfer as illness puts them to the test,” Cahen said. She described it as “a luminous melodrama that unfolds majestically under the pink-and-blue California sky.”
Critics Week will wrap with “Adieu monde cruel,” which stars Milo Machado-Graner, the young boy who broke out in Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” and Jane Beever. The film follows a teenager grappling with the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt. Cahen touted it as a “a realistic tale that strikes a subtle balance between meticulous mise-en-scène and the spontaneous emotions of its 14-year-old protagonist.”
Selected from 1,050 feature films and 2,400 shorts, this year’s Critics’ Week lineup comprises 11 features and 13 short films, with seven titles in competition – including five first features and two second films — and four special screenings.
“A breath of fresh air sweeps across the poster of the 65th Semaine de la Critique,” said Cahen in her presentation of the lineup, pointing to the section’s enduring mission “to reveal emerging filmmakers and actors, and support them as they make their promising first steps.”
The lineup includes films from across Europe, Mexico, Asia and the Middle East. Speaking of the broader themes running through this year’s roster, Cahen said the “selection bears witness to a society imploding but which refuses to give in,” with films that “question the times we live in… offering sensitive visions where hope bursts from every corner.”
Among the anticipated standouts are Zou Jing’s “A Girl Unknown,” Bruno Santamaria Razo’s “Six Months in the Pink Building” and Alexander Murphy’s “Tin Castle.”
“A Girl Unknown,” which is headlined by rising star Li Gengxi (“Resurrection”), charts “a young Chinese woman’s searing quest for identity, split between childhood and adolescence and between three families,” Cahen said, adding that the film delivers an intimate portrait that “immerses us in the plight of abandoned young girls in China between the years 1980s and 2000s.”
“Six Months in the Pink Building,” is a Mexican drama set in 1996 and follows a boy whose father is diagnosed with HIV. “The director takes us back to the 90s, a time when HIV awareness was still fragile and prejudice persisted,” Cahen said. Starring Armando Espitia and Sofia Espinosa, the film is “adorned with warm colors that celebrates love and childhood and gracefully plays with home movie conventions,” Cahen continued.
“Tin Castle” is a documentary portraying a large Irish Traveller family living in a roadside trailer. “Life unfolds with the seasons, between the wild freedom of the surrounding fields where the children play and the pressures of normative society that creeps up on the older children,” Cahen said, calling it “an ode to Irish Travellers and their way of life.”
The competition will also showcase films from Kosovo and Yemen for the first time with Blerta Basholli’s “Dua” and Sara Ishaq’s “Al Mahatta,” respectively.
Basholli previously directed the short “Hive” which played at Sundance in 2021 and won the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award and the Audience Award.
The jury of Critics Week will hand out three awards: the Sony Discovery Prize for short film, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award, and the AMI Paris Grand Prize.
The 65th edition of Cannes’ Critics Week will run May 13–21.
Here’s the lineup:
Competition
“Al Mahatta” (“The Station”), Sara Ishaq
“Dua,” Blerta Basholli
“La Gradiva,” Marine Atlan
“Wu ming nü hai” (“A Girl Unknown”), Zou Jing
“Six Months in the Pink Building,” Bruno Santamaría Razo
“Tin Castle,” Alexander Murphy
“Viva” (“Alive”), Aina Clotet
Special Screenings
“Adieu monde cruel” (closing film), Félix de Givry
“In Waves” (opening film), Phuong Mai Nguyen
“La Frappe” (“Stonewall”), Julien Gaspar-Oliveri
“Du Fioul dans les artères” (“Flesh and Fuel”), Pierre Le Gall
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