Meryl Streep to Receive Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival on Opening Night (EXCLUSIVE)

Lexi Carson The American Pavilion has announced this year’s “Industry In Focus” series and “In Conversation” programming for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The programming will run from Wednesday, May 15, to Thursday, May 23, and will include a daily schedule of more than 25 panels, conversations and screenings.

EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Portman has joined the voice cast for French director Ugo Bienvenu’s upcoming animated feature Arco about a boy who uses rainbows to travel through time and his adventures as he gets stuck in the wrong era.

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) are leading thriller The Patient, which is launching in the Cannes market with International Film Trust.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent New Italian media company Be Water – which is in Cannes for the first time – has announced its full roster of partners and scope of business activities comprising film, documentary and scripted TV production as well as theatrical film distribution, podcasts and live events. The Rome-based potential powerhouse is operating with what is being described as a holistic approach to content production that is congenial to the digital age, which is certainly a novelty for Italy.

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Cannes market, Lionsgate has taken North American rights off the table on one of the bigger-budget new packages that’ll be on sale next week: that’s action-thriller Mutiny, which will star action evergreen Jason Statham (Fast & Furious) and be directed by Jean-François Richet (Plane).

Sam Claflin and Rupert Friend will star in Thunder Road Pictures’ World War II action-thriller Perdition. Written and directed by Henry Dunham, principal photography is set for the fall.

Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Roy Lee and Steven Schneider’s genre label Spooky Pictures have set the third feature under their multi-picture slate deal with sci-fi horror Menace. Directed by Randall Okita (See For Me), the film stars Isabel May (1883) who also serves as an executive producer via her banner Una Vaca Productions.

Paul Schrader absentmindedly builds installation art out of seven prescription bottles, two inhalers and an empty martini glass, as we sit in a restaurant for seniors in a Manhattan high-rise. Outside, lights twinkle on the Hudson. In 1975, Schrader went to bed with a pistol under his pillow while writing “Taxi Driver.” “Having the option to end things is the only way I could sleep,” Schrader says.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian-born Texas-based director Roberto Minervini is known for a distinguished career making documentaries including his so-called Texas trilogy comprising “The Passage,” “Low Tide” and “Stop the Pounding Heart.” His most recent doc “What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?” about a community of Black people in New Orleans during the summer of 2017, when a string of brutal killings of Black men sent shockwaves throughout the country, launched from the Venice competition in 2018. “The Damned,” which is Minervini’s first feature film, is set during the American Civil War in the winter of 1862.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will honor Australian director and screenwriter Peter Weir – whose body of work comprises “Dead Poets Society,” “The Truman Show,” and “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” – with its 2024 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. “With a total of only thirteen movies directed over the course of forty years, Peter Weir has secured a place in the firmament of the great directors of modern cinema,” Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said in a statement.

Alex Ritman Writer-director S. Craig Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk”) is set to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star Vince Vaughn and Oscar winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) for upcoming crime thriller “The Bookie & the Bruiser.” Anton will introduce the film to international distributors at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group and Range Media Partners arranged the financing and will be representing the North American distribution rights.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett is set to star as the leader of the “Alpha Gang,” an alien invasion comedy by “Sasquatch Sunset” filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner. The hot package will be launched at Cannes by MK2 Films (“Anatomy of a Fall”) handling international sales and CAA Media Finance handling North American distribution rights. “Alpha Gang” is set to start filming in the Fall.

Olivia Colman and John Lithgow are leading Jimpa, a movie about a trans non-binary teenager visiting their gay grandfather from Sophie Hyde (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), with Protagonist Pictures launching international sales at Cannes.

EXCLUSIVE: Nicolas Cage, FKA Twigs, Noah Jupe and Souheila Yacoub are set to star in Egyptian-American director Lotfy Nathan’s The Carpenter’s Son exploring the rarely told story of the childhood of Jesus with a horror take.

Morgan Freeman, Olivier Marchal and Simone Ashley will be lauded at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in June. Prince Albert II of Monaco will present Freeman with Festival’s Crystal Nymph award.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sandra Hüller, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Anatomy of a Fall,” and four-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”) are set to co-star in Kent Jones’ “Late Fame,” reteaming “May December” co-screenwriter Samy Burch and producer Killer Films. One of the hottest packages set for a Cannes Launch, “Late Fame” has been boarded by MK2 Films which is hot off an Oscar win for “Anatomy of a Fall” and will represent worldwide sales outside of North America.

Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal) and BAFTA Award winner Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers) have signed on to lead Italian filmmaker Nathalie Biancheri’s latest pic Takes One To Know One. 

Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival has revealed the full program lineup for its 34th edition. The festival champions 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers from across the globe, and will showcase 106 films from 25 countries, including 30 feature films and 5 world premieres. The festival will take place May 24th to June 1st in Toronto, Canada at TIFF Lightbox as well as online. Inside Out’s Co-Head & Executive Director, Elie Chivi, and Co-Head & Artistic Director, Andrew Murphy, made today’s announcement. ​​ 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation has boarded international sales on Titus Kaphar’s drama “Exhibiting Forgiveness.” The film received strong reviews after its January premiere at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and was picked up for North American distribution by Roadside Attractions, with plans for a wide theatrical release in the fall and awards campaign.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has boarded “Gazer,” the debut feature of American filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan which will world premiere at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.