What to expect from Cannes 2024? The global selection offers critics plenty to write about — after all, this is the festival d’auteurs. But this year’s edition may be light on the red carpet glitz that lures celebrities to the Côte d’Azur for eye-popping photo memes and offshore yacht revels. Remember Madonna’s 1991 pointy Gaultier bustier? Elizabeth Taylor holding her white dog as “Cliffhanger” star Sylvester Stallone climbed the steps to meet her at the top? Such viral moments are what Cannes director Thierry Fremaux dreams of.
High-octane stars expected to hit the Palais photo gauntlet include two-time Oscar-winner Emma Stone, who stars in all three stories in competition title “Kinds of Kindness” (Searchlight), Yorgos Lanthimos’ edgy follow-up to $100-million grosser “Poor Things.” Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth will add some sizzle for out-of-competition prequel “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros.), George Miller’s rollercoaster return after 2015’s Oscar-winning “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Adam Driver returns with Francis Coppola’s self-financed comeback bid “Megalopolis,” in competition and seeking a buyer. And Croisette veterans Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander costar in offbeat comedy “Rumours” (Bleecker Street), from directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson.
Kevin Costner, who won Best Director and Picture Oscars for “Dances with Wolves” (1991), brings some old-school Hollywood wattage with his episodic western “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” (Warner Bros.) and has invited seven of his female costars to join him, including Sienna Miller and Jena Malone. Of similar vintage is Richard Gere, who co-stars with Jacob Elordi and Uma Thurman in Paul Schrader’s elegy on aging, “Oh, Canada,” which is seeking distribution.
On opening night, another Hollywood icon, Meryl Streep will accept a life achievement Palme d’Or before the Palais unspools “The Second Act,” which throws a bevy of French-speaking stars onto le tapis rouge: Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, and Vincent Lindon. And Competition title “Marcello Mio” features Chiara Mastroianni impersonating her father alongside her mother Catherine Deneuve. European royalty indeed.
The festival has long favored its aging masters. France’s Jacques Audiard could win his third Palme d’Or for Mexican cartel musical “Emilia Perez,” starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Édgar Ramírez, a sales title, as is Canadian David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” a near-future tech story about monitoring and desecrating the graves of the dead, starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce. Already sold is Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” (A24), starring Gary Oldman. And returning vet Andrea Arnold cast Irish rising star Barry Keoghan and German star Franz Rogowski in her sales title “Bird,” a story of isolated rebellion.
The red carpet will, as usual, welcome fashion and fragrance brand stars to supply more fresh blood.
Finally, the heart of the festival is the Competition, whose prize winners, stars or no stars, have lately had an impact on the Oscar race, from “Parasite” and “Drive” to “Anatomy of a Fall.” There will be more to come.
