Film festivals are a lot like whack-a-mole. When one ends, the anticipation for the next begins. Sundance always kicks things off in January high up in the mountains of Utah, followed then by Berlin Film Festival in February, and SXSW in March. Now all eyes turn to the most prestigious festival of them all: Cannes.

Cannes' influence on the awards season has grown exponentially over the past decade. Their Official Competition has fielded two best picture winners in Parasite and Anora; as well as nominees like Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest, The Substance, and Emilia Pérez. This expansion has gone hand-in-hand with the international growth of the Academy, with these new members being more accepting of the highbrow work that Cannes has always prided itself on.

With that kind of increased attention comes a greater desire for filmmakers and studios to birth their new works on the Croisette. Delegate General Thierry Fremaux will have to navigate a minefield to select the twenty-ish films that comprise this year's Official Competition. There will be no shortage of mainstays looking to get their customary slot, as well as several newcomers looking to make a splash on the world's biggest stage.

The festival will announce its full lineup on April 10. Until then, I'll take a deep dive into the field and predict which ones are likely to be given the honor of climbing the coveted red steps this year.

THE HEADLINERS

Alpha

Now that Coralie Fargeat just stormed Cannes with The Substance, the ball is back in Titane writer/director Julia Ducournau's court to unleash a new tale of biological horror. Neon is once again backing her, with Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani starring. The rumored plot follows a teenager who is mistreated by classmates once they believe she carries an infectious disease. As with Titane and Raw, that information will likely be just the tip of the iceberg.

Die, My Love

Not many filmmakers have a stronger bond with Cannes than Lynne Ramsay. The Scottish-born director has debuted each of her four feature films at the festival, as well as her early shorts. She'll be breaking her eight-year absence with a story about a mother struggling to keep her sanity. Jennifer Lawrence will star as the mother, with Robert Pattinson as her partner.

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother

When thinking of established American directors to make Cannes their home, you’d tend to think of the Coens and Wes Anderson. But it’s actually Jim Jarmusch that deserves to be at (or at least near) the top of that list as he’s premiered eleven feature films on the Croisette since 1984. His highest point was 2005’s Broken Flowers, which took home the Grand Prix. He began shooting his new film in the fall and late winter of 2023, recruiting the likes of Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, and Vicky Krieps.

Highest 2 Lowest

Spike Lee is already 0/1 on English-language remakes of famous Asian films, his version of Oldboy was so terrible that 99% of filmmakers would steer very clear of that territory ever again. But Lee isn't like anybody else, and he's enlisted his most trusted accomplice, Denzel Washington, to pull off this reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller. A24 and Apple TV+ are backing the project, with all parties interested in making a big splash before this hits theaters in the summer.

No Other Choice

2022's Decision to Leave was one of director Park Chan-wook's most successful films, nabbing him the coveted Best Director prize at the festival. He'll likely return this year for his fifth appearance in competition with a Korean adaptation of the 1997 horror thriller novel The Ax. Lee Byung-hun will star as an unemployed man who, in an act of desperation, starts to kill all the other applicants for the new job he needs.

Sentimental Value

The Norwegian band that brought you 2021's The Worst Person in the World is back together! Joachim Trier is in the director's chair, Eskil Vogt is in the writer's room with him, and Renate Reinsve is in front of the camera. Brought into the fold is Stellen Skarsgård as Reinsve's film director father, who offers her the lead role in his next film. Neon preemptively acquired North American rights to the project, signaling their hunger to nab their sixth consecutive Palme d'Or.

The Phoenician Scheme

Cannes thrives on star power to fill its historic red carpet, and Wes Anderson always has enough to go around. His newest cast will feature no less than Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, and Benicio del Toro in a comedic espionage thriller. Focus Features just dated the film for a theatrical release beginning on May 30, all but confirming a return to the Croisette.

The Secret Agent

The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho has quietly delivered some of the best-reviewed titles in each of the years he's been at Cannes. His last appearance in the Official Competition was in 2019 with Bacurau, which tied for the Jury Prize with Les Misérables. His latest project will be set in 1977, following a man who is on the run from a violent past. Walter Salles' I'm Still Here just put Brazil on the map at Venice last year with a similar story, will Filho do the same at Cannes this year?

The Young Mother's Home

If I were a gambling man, I would bet my entire life savings on the fact that the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will premiere their latest film at Cannes. The duo have debuted their previous ten films on the Croisette dating back to 1996, with 1999’s Rosetta and 2005’s L’enfant both winning the Palme d’Or. They’ve also won the Best Screenplay (Lorna’s Silence) and Best Director awards (Young Ahmed), as well as the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury on three separate occasions. Their newest feature will tell the story of five young mothers striving for a better life for themselves and their children. Production began last fall, giving the brothers plenty of time to prepare for a record-breaking Palme d’Or run.

THE LOYALISTS

An Affair

Arnaud Desplechin has made nearly a dozen appearances at the festival between the main competition and the sidebars. While his last few films have been disappointments, last year's Filmlovers! was met with great acclaim, renewing his standing invitation. He's got François Civil starring as a virtuoso pianist living an impossible love story.

Eagles of the Republic

Like much of the Western world, Cannes still remains slow to appreciate projects that originate from Africa. The Egyptian-born Tarik Saleh won the Best Screenplay prize at the 2022 edition of the festival with Cairo Conspiracy, the second film in his Cairo trilogy that will be concluded with this year's Eagles of the Republic. It follows an actor who is pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities.

Nouvelle Vague

While we’ll have to wait almost another two decades for Richard Linklater’s ambitious adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along, the famed Texan filmmaker has something up his sleeve that will be irresistible to the Cannes brass. He'll be making his French-language debut with his retelling of the production of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, complete with appearances by all the famous French New Wave figures that aided in solidifying the status that Cannes has within the industry. It’s been twenty years since Linklater last competed on the Riviera (2005’s Fast Food Nation), so it's time for him to be brought back into the fold.

Rosebush Pruning

Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz has appeared in the competition lineup for the previous two editions of the festival with Firebrand and Motel Destino. The relatively muted reception to those films follows a similar trajectory throughout the rest of his Cannes career, placing a little bit of doubt on his usual standing invitation. But he's assembled his starriest cast yet in his new film, enlisting Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Callum Turner, Tracy Letts, Jamie Bell, and Riley Keough in a story about a family all suffering with genetic illnesses on their estate. If this is Aïnouz's last chance to make an impression, he's at least taking the no guts, no glory approach.

Silent Friend

Hungarian writer/director Ildikó Enyedi did herself no favors by making her Official Competition debut with 2021's The Story of My Wife, her weakest film. However, the casting of the legendary Tony Leung in the lead role of her new project could more than well make up for that fault. The interesting concept also helps, with Leung playing an old tree observing life as he stands in the middle of a botanical garden.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

The Russian-born Kirill Serebrennikov has debuted his previous four features at Cannes, most recently last year with his English-language debut Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie. He shot his newest film before that one premiered, a retelling of notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during his fugitive years in South America. August Diehl, everyone's favorite actor for playing Nazis, will play the doctor.

The Mastermind

Showing Up received the most attention and praise of writer/director Kelly Reichardt's career when it premiered on the final day of the 2022 edition of the festival. It only makes sense for all parties to continue the relationship, especially with her new project being a crime thriller starring Josh O'Connor as an art thief. Reichardt has often been the unsung hero of independent cinema, so it's about time she received some laurels on a big stage.

Vie Privée

Writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski has been a staple of the sidebars, competing in Critics’ Week, Un Certain Regard, and Directors’ Fortnight. Will this be the time she finally graduates to the main competition? She's got none other than Jodie Foster leading her next film as a psychiatrist who mounts a private investigation after she believes that one of her patients has been murdered. Virginie Efira and Mathieu Amalric are also part of the cast.

Yes!

Success has followed Nadav Lapid wherever he goes as of late. He won the Golden Bear at Berlin for Synonyms in 2019, and then the Jury Prize at Cannes for Ahed's Knee in 2021. While it's definitely a coincidence, Lapid seems to be taking inspiration from Jim Carrey's 2008 Yes Man for his next feature, which will also be about a man who can only answer "yes" to every question asked to him. The Israeli Film Fund gave it backing last year, and it was pitched at the Cannes Investor Circle, so Lapid has always been interacting on the Croisette with this project.

THE UP-AND-COMERS / QUESTION MARKS

Eddington

After three much-discussed features with A24, Ari Aster has shed his newcomer status and become one of the leading figures of American independent cinema. His new film is certainly a step up, with a cast comprised of Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. If any audience is going to be receptive to Aster's craziness on the first go-around, it would be Cannes.

Miroirs No. 3

Along with Hong Sang-soo, German writer/director Christian Petzold is one of the most consistent headlining figures of the Berlin Film Festival. However, he was notably absent from this year's lineup, likely due to the time constraint caused by his newest film beginning production in the fall. The question is now if he'll wait a whole year to finally claim the elusive Golden Bear, or pivot to another major European festival. Cannes would be happy to have Petzold's, especially since it marks another reteaming of the director with the luminous Paula Beer.

Orphan

László Nemes began his career in 2015 at the top of the mountain. His film Son of Saul won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and then the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (now named Best International Feature). He debuted his follow-up, Sunset, in 2018 at Venice to less acclaim and attention. He'll be staying in his native Hungary for his third feature, centering on a young boy who must confront the truth about his father after he turns out to be alive after being presumed dead. Nemes' usual collaborators co-writer Clara Royer and cinematographer Mátyás Erdely are back as well.

Resurrection

Chinese mainland director Bi Gan was the talk of the town in 2018 when he debuted Long Day's Journey Into Night, complete with the one-hour-long single take, as part of the Un Certain Regard section. Production on his next project, a sci-fi detective story, has been in production for quite some time, supposedly being finished late last year. Multiple producers from all over the world have boarded the project over the past few months, signaling a lot of confidence in what Gan has created.

Stitches

Angelina Jolie looks to be staying in Paris for one more film. This time she'll be playing an American filmmaker arriving to cover the famed Fashion Week, facing challenges and self-discovery. Cannes veteran Alice Winocour wrote and directed the feature, with her previous effort being the well-reviewed Revoir Paris in 2022.

The History of Sound

Reports were published last summer that director Oliver Hermanus' new film wouldn't be ready in time for the fall festivals. It would instead use the extra time it had bought to fine-tune and wait for a potential premiere at Cannes. With rising superstars Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal headlining, that bet may pay off quite well. Even if it doesn't appear at Cannes, expect it to be a heavy hitter at Venice, where Hermanus took Living back in 2022.

The Love That Remains

Hlynur Pálmason's Godland made quite the splash in the Un Certain Regard section in 2022, eventually being shortlisted as Iceland's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. He shot his new film under-the-radar in Iceland last year, which will tell the story of a family as the parents navigate a separation amidst the changing seasons. The film has already been shopped around at the Berlin Film Market for worldwide distribution, signaling that it's ready to go. The big question that remains is if he'll graduate to the Official Competition, or remain in the sidebars.

The Wave

Cannes got more than they bargained for with Emilia Pérez last year. Would they be willing to program another Spanish-language musical so quickly, this time from renowned filmmaker Sebastián Lelio? His story takes place in his native Chile, centering on a student who gets involved in a feminist movement at her university. Cannes remains one of the few festivals Lelio hasn't made an impression at (his 2009 film Navidad premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section to tepid reviews), giving him all the more reason to represent South American cinema on the world's biggest stage.

The Way of the Wind

There’s no way to figure out when a Terrence Malick film will be released. All you can do is wait and pray. Malick premiered his last movie, A Hidden Life, at Cannes in 2019, and he also won the Palme d’Or for his magnum opus The Tree Of Life in 2011. He once again has saddled himself with another weighty topic, as The Way Of The Wind will tell several episodes of the life of Jesus Christ, led by a cast of Mark Rylance, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, and Matthias Schoenaerts. Several of Malick’s films have been delayed for years as he endlessly tinkers in the editing room, so there’s no telling when this film will be seen.