Cannes Film Festival: Francis Ford Coppola will be in competition with his film Megalopolis

Francis Ford Coppola could not keep the secret any longer: “I am more than honored to return to the Cannes Film Festival this year,” declared the 85-year-old American director on his Instagram account. While the announcement of the official selection of the 77th film festival is expected on Thursday at 11 a.m., its 23rd feature film Megalopolis will be screened on Friday May 17.

The director of the films The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The Outsiders invested $120 million to make Megalopolis. The film will be screened following a gala evening on May 17. The star cast composed of Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, will thus be able to walk the steps of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes.

“Mégalopolis is a project that he wanted to realize for so long and he did it independently, in his own way, as an artist,” reacts Thierry Fremaux in Variety. “He built the legend of the Cannes Film Festival and it would be an honor to welcome him again, as a filmmaker coming to present his new film.” For the moment, the film's pitch maintains the suspense: “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world incapable of solving its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and conflict,” reports Première.

According to the American magazine Deadline, a first screening of the 2h13 film with 300 guests was organized at the Universal CityWalk Imax Theater in Los Angeles on March 28.

Furiosa, the new installment of George Miller's Mad Max franchise, will be screened on May 15. Kevin Costner is back with his western Horizon, An American Saga, for the out-of-competition selection. The opening, out of competition, goes to Quentin Dupieux with his film The Second Act which notably features Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon.