Sean Penn thriller joins the Cannes throng

Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour added to Cannes Competition line-up Photo: UniFrance

The bumper edition of this year’s 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is growing topsy-like with the addition of 14 further titles to the Official Selection as promised by artistic director Thierry Frémaux during the recent media launch.

Sean Penn was previously at Cannes with Flag Day in 2021 Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

The Competition will see premieres of Jean-Stépahne Sauvaire’s US thriller Black Flies with Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson and Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour which brings the total number of Competition with female directors to seven. The Corsini film previously had been withdrawn over allegations of “inappropriate incidents” during the filming but the festival authorities investigated and have now deemed it suitable for inclusion.

Cannes Premier section has three new titles: Amat Escalante’s Lost In The Night, Valerie Donzelli’s Just The Two Of Us, co-written with Happening director Audrey Diwan; and Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka.

The Out of Competition strand will have the inclusion of Frederic Tellier’s L’Abbé Pierre, about a Second World War resistance fighter. Two new productions join Un Certain Regard: Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and closing choice Alex Lutz’s Une Nuit.

Midnight Strand has bows for Robert Rodriguez’s thriller Hypnotic starring Ben Affleck and Kim Tae-gon’s Project Silence.

Further bolstering the Special Screenings line-up are: Mona Achache’s Little Girl Blue, Sahra Mani’s Bread And Roses and Anna Novion’s Le Theoreme de Marguerite.

The festival starts on 15 May.