Cannes Film Festival: six directors in competition, a record

A record. Six directors will be in the running for the palme d'or at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which takes place from May 16 to 27 on the Croisette. Among this list, which gives pride of place to great filmmakers, some of whom have already won a prize, are the Frenchwomen Catherine Breillat and Justine Triet, the Franco-Senegalese Ramata-Toulaye Sy, the Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, the Austrian Jessica Hausner and Italian Alice Rohrwacher.

Ten years after her last film Abuse of Weakness, Catherine Breillat will return to the Croisette with the story of a mother whose life changes following an affair with her stepson: Last Summer. A regular at Cannes, Justine Triet is back in competition after Sibyl in 2019. Her fourth feature film tells the story of a woman accused of the murder of her husband, with the German Sandra Hüller in the title role. She conquered the Croisette in 2016 with Toni Erdmann.

The young filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy will present her first film, Banel and Adama, the story of a mistreated love in a village in Senegal. Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, whose previous feature was presented in the Un certain regard section in 2017, deals with a complex subject. Film on the edge of the documentary, The girls of Olfa tells the fight of a mother, whose life has been turned upside down by the Islamic radicalization of her daughters.

Among the other filmmakers in the running, the Austrian Jessica Hausner and the Italian Alice Rohrwacher were members of the Cannes jury, respectively in 2021 and 2019. The first directs this year Club Zero - a teacher, in an elite school, dangerously influences his students -, the second produces La Chimère - a hunter of Etruscan remains finds himself struggling with a past love.

These directors will therefore be in competition against veterans of the 7th art, including the British Ken Loach and the American Wes Anderson. Note that the film that will open the festival, Jeanne du Barry (out of competition), is directed by the French Maïwenn. In the history of the festival, only two directors have won the supreme distinction: the Frenchwoman Julia Ducournau in 2021 for Titane and the New Zealander Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano Lesson.