Mohammad Rasoulof and Michel Hazanavicius in competition at the Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival completed its selection on Monday, notably inviting into competition an Iranian filmmaker breaking with the regime, Mohammad Rasoulof, and director Michel Hazanavicius for an animated film.

Michel Hazanavicius, 57, will be in the running for the Palme d'Or with The Most Precious of Commodities. This is a first attempt at animated cinema for the very eclectic director of The Artist (Oscar winner in 2012) or the first two parts of the spy comedy OSS 117. Adapted from a play by Jean- Claude Grumberg, the film evokes the memory of the Shoah and the fate of a Jewish child who miraculously escapes deportation to the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz.

The festival also added Mohammad Rasoulof's new film, The seed of the sacred fig. This filmmaker, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2017 (A Man of Integrity), then of the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2020 (The Devil Does Not Exist), was invited last year as a member of 'a jury. But Mohammad Rasoulof, 52, in the regime's sights and recently released from prison, was unable to make the trip, still subject to a travel ban.

Evoking the burning issues of corruption or the death penalty, Mohammad Rasoulof is one of the Iranian directors awarded prizes in the biggest festivals but accused in Iran of propaganda against the regime, like Jafar Panahi or Saeed Roustaee.

A third director, the Romanian Emanuel Parvu, is also added to the competition, bringing to 22 the number of films in the running to succeed last year's Palme d'Or, Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet. Among them, the works of illustrious Hollywood directors, including Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola and Oh Canada by Paul Schrader, a musical comedy by Jacques Audiard, the new film by Yorgos Lanthimos with Emma Stone, after his Golden Lion for Poor Creatures , or even a work on Naples by the Italian Paolo Sorrentino.

Outside of competition, the festival, which will be held from May 14 to 25, also announced on Monday the premiere of The Count of Monte Cristo, with Pierre Niney in the title role, a French blockbuster scheduled out of competition, while Oliver Stone will present in special screening a documentary on Brazilian leader Lula. Three films are also added to the Un Certain Regard section, including the directorial debut of actress Céline Sallette, a biopic on the artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, with Charlotte Le Bon.