David Cronenberg returning to Cannes film competition
David Cronenberg and Guy Maddin are among the high-profile Canadians re‐ turning to this year's Cannes Film Festival, which begins May 14.
Cronenberg, known for sci-fi and horror films going all the way back to the 1970s, will compete for the main prize with The Shrouds, a horror flick shot in Toronto about a grieving widower played by Vincent Cassel.
The widower invents a de‐ vice that lets people monitor deceased loved ones in their burial shrouds, and when his wife's grave is desecrated one night, he sets out to track down the perpetrators.
"Being selected for the Cannes Film Festival is an im‐ mense honour, but to return for the seventh time is in‐ credibly humbling," Cronen‐ berg said in a statement. "I look forward to sharing this film with the world on such a prestigious stage."
The 81-year-old, whose works include Videodrome, Naked Lunch and A History of Violence, made his last
Cannes appearance with 2022's Crimes of the Future.
WATCH | David Cronen‐ berg says movie theatres are over:
The Shrouds was pro‐ duced in part by Martin Katz for Prospero Pictures, whose founder and president Mar‐ tin Katz called it "an auda‐ cious and human film, so apt for our times."
Cronenberg will compete for the Palme d'Or against the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Lobster), who will debut Kinds of Kind‐ ness, and George Miller's
Mad Max spinoff Furiosa.
Francis Ford Coppola, known for Apocalypse Now and The Godfather trilogy, will debut Megalopolis star‐ ring Adam Driver, his first movie in more than a decade and one of this year's most anticipated events.
Another attention-grab‐ bing entry is Ali Abassi's The Apprentice, a biographical drama about Donald Trump's real estate career in New York in the 1970s and 80s.
The official selection for the festival's 77th edition was announced at a Thursday press conference in Paris.
Dark Canadian comedy about G7 to screen out‐ side main competition
A trio of Winnipeg directors, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, co-di‐ rected Rumours, which will screen out of competition at Cannes. The dark comedy is about world leaders who meet at the G7 and get lost in the woods while trying to compose a joint statement. The trio previously worked together on 2017's The Green Fog.
Star Wars director George Lucas will attend this year's festival to receive an hono‐ rary Palme d'Or while Kevin
Costner will present his new Western Horizon, an Ameri‐ can Saga.
Montreal filmmaker Xavi‐ er Dolan, whose film Mommy won the 2014 Cannes Jury Prize, will head the jury for the festival's Un Certain Re‐ gard section, which presents films with unusual styles and non-traditional stories.
Dolan wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first feature film, I Killed my Mother, at age 19, and it earned Canada's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. In 2010, his film Heart‐ beats screened in Un Certain Regard when he was just 21.
"I am humbled and de‐ lighted to return to Cannes as president of the Un Cer‐ tain Regard jury," Dolan said in a statement. "Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of tal‐ ented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and pro‐ fessional journeys."
The Cannes main compe‐ tition jury will be headed by Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
The film festival runs from May 14 to May 25.