The Cannes Film Market is gearing up for one of its most unpredictable editions in years, as buyers navigate a landscape shaped by risk aversion, political turbulence (thank you, Mr. Trump), and the lingering aftershocks of a sluggish Berlin. February’s European Film Market was brimming with promising projects, but few big deals materialized, leaving distributors cautious as they head to the Marché du Film, which runs May 13-21.
“The market has become less predictable,” says Simon Williams of Ashland Hill Media Finance, whose sales outfit Palisades Park Pictures is shopping sci-fi actioners Eyes in the Trees with Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as well as Skyline: Warpath with Scott Adkins and Iko Uwais, at this year’s market. “It’s become so you can’t just rely on one market to launch a project. You take it to Berlin and get a few sales, then Cannes and get a few more; you have to do a lot more work to get the finances in place to get the green light.”
With presales becoming harder to secure and Trump’s 100 percent tariffs on movies “made in foreign lands” adding another layer of uncertainty, the indie film world is bracing for a challenging Cannes as the details of Trump’s plan remain frustratingly sparse. Even for those who are skeptical that any semblance of a plan will actually come to fruition, the worry is that even the threat of tariffs is enough to keep already risk-averse financiers away.
But recent indie triumphs at the Oscars like Anora and The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez and The Substance, Conclave and A Real Pain — half of which debuted at Cannes and crossover commercial successes all — show the opportunity available for those who can make the numbers work.
“It seems like there continues to be, and I hope I don’t eat my words on this, an appetite for high concept, breakthrough, cool ideas and interesting new directors,” says Allison Hironaka, head of film and TV at Caviar, which has Zac Efron and Phoebe Dynevor project Famous in this year’s market. Gonzo films like Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance proved to be winners at the box office, earning nearly $60 million in international ticket sales.
“You can still make these studio-releasable movies for a global, wide audience, and you can build them more easily within in the independent sector,” says Guy Danella, the newly appointed head of production and acquisition at XYZ Films, whose Cannes slate includes The Edge of Normal, the English-language debut of Spanish director Carlota Pereda (Piggy), starring Chloë Grace Moretz. “There’s a real thirst on the talent side, with actors who are available and just holding out for something great. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a massive studio film for them to say yes.”
That’s evidenced by the projects heading to the Marché this year. The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the market’s hottest titles boast impressive above-the-line names like Sydney Sweeney, Jesse Plemons, Gal Gadot, Jeremy Allen White and Angelina Jolie, signing up for indie projects both massive — Lionsgate’s $150 million-plus Hunger Games prequel — and more modest, including Colman Domingo’s directorial debut, and a new Werner Herzog film. How buyers respond on the Croisette will be an indication of the long-term health of a disrupted industry.
THE ACCOMPANIST
DIRECTOR Zach Woods
STARS Aubrey Plaza, Susan Sarandon, Everly Carganilla
BUZZ Silicon Valley, Veep and The Office actor Woods makes his feature debut with this drama that combines social and magic realism in the story of a foster child assigned to a woman literally haunted by her past. Could be a pick for indie distributors looking for smart, but still family-friendly fare.
SALES Mister Smith Entertainment (international), CAA Media Finance and Gersh(North America)
ANXIOUS PEOPLE
DIRECTOR Marc Forster
STARS Angelina Jolie
BUZZ The team behind 2022 cross-over hit A Man Called Otto — director Forster, screenwriter David Magee, and producers Fredrik Wikström Nicastro and Renée Wolfe — reunite for this holiday-themed dramedy about an investment banker (Jolie) who finds herself thrown together with a group of strangers on Christmas Eve when a reluctant bank robber takes them all hostage. Based on a the novel from A Man Called Otto writer Fredrik Backman, already adapted as a hit series for Netflix in Sweden, this is a package with the pedigree and a track record.
SALES Black Bear (international), WME Independent (U.S.)
BUNKER
DIRECTOR Florian Zeller
STARS Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz
BUZZ Global buyers will be salivating at the prospect of this psychological thriller, from Oscar-winning writer-director Zeller (The Father) featuring husband-and-wife Oscar-winning A-listers Bardem and Cruz as a couple facing a crisis when he takes on a job building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire.
SALES FilmNation Entertainment (international), CAA Media Finance/WME Independent (North America)
BUCKING FASTARD
DIRECTOR Werner Herzog
STARS Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom, Domhnall Gleeson
BUZZ Herzog returns with a surreal, operatic tale about codependent sisters (Kate and Rooney Mara, sharing the screen for the first time) who become tabloid sensations. Herzog has positioned Bucking Fastard as the third film in an “operatic triptych” with his masterpieces Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man, stoking interest among high-end buyers
SALES HanWay Films
BAD LIEUTENANT: TOKYO
DIRECTOR Takashi Miike
STARS Shun Oguri, Lily James, Liv Morgan
BUZZ Japanese director Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins) takes over from Werner Herzog in this third addition to the cult corrupt cop franchise, this time set among Tokyo’s yakuza underworld. Neon will release the film theatrically in North America as well as handling international rights.
SALES Neon
COYOTE VS ACME
DIRECTOR Dave Green
STARS Will Forte, John Cena, Wile E. Coyote
BUZZ From the Warner Bros. cutting room floor to Cannes, this half-animated comedy has had a long journey. The finished film, which follows Wile E. Coyote as he sues corporation ACME after all of their products blow up in his face (literally), is being distributed by Ketchup in the U.S. but gives international buyers a way into the storied Looney Tunes franchise.
SALES Kinology (international)
THE EDGE OF NORMAL
DIRECTOR Carlota Pereda
STARS Chloë Grace Moretz, Rupert Friend
BUZZ Pereda’s hotly-anticipated English-language debut — her Spanish slasher Piggy (2022) was an instant cult classic — is stand-out horror title amid the market’s mountain of straight-to-VOD schlock. Kick-Ass alum Moretz plays a survivor of a serial-killer who gets pulled back into the horror when she’s asked to mentor another victim.
SALES XYZ Films/CAA Media Finance
THE END OF IT
DIRECTOR Maria Martinez Bayona
STARS Rebecca Hall, Gael GarcÍa Bernal, Noomi Rapace, Beanie Feldstein
BUZZ A high-concept sci-fi film with a starry-cast — the kind of project that can play both theatrically and enjoy a healthy streaming run — Bayona’s feature debut imagines a world where aging has been cured and death is optional, creating problems when an artist (Rebecca Hall), approaching her 250th birthday, decides to end it all.
SALES Bankside (international), WME Independent (North America)
FAMOUS
DIRECTOR Jody Hill
STARS Zac Efron, Phoebe Dynevor
BUZZ A24 has already taken the domestic rights for this Zac Efron-starring thriller that dives into the world of Hollywood celebrity. Efron will play dual roles as a Hollywood heartthrob and his overzealous fan and look-alike, the latter of which moves out to Los Angeles to get famous, no matter what it takes.
SALES Black Bear (international)
LE FAUX SOIR
DIRECTOR Michaël R. Roskam
STARS Matthias Schoenaerts, Mélanie Thierry, Karim Leklou
BUZZ Roskam reunites with his macho muse Schoenaerts in this WWII heist thriller, set in German-occupied Belgium and inspired by the true tale of Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, which became a Nazi propaganda rag following the invasion. A Belgian resistance group publishes a spoof edition, known as Le Faux Soir (The False Soir).
SALES Goodfella
GETTING RID OF MATTHEW
DIRECTOR Hernán Jiménez
STARS Emma Roberts, Luke Wilson, Heather Graham
BUZZ One of the few stand rom-com projects on offer in Cannes this year, this feature from Love Hard director Jiménez, based on a Jane Fallon bestseller, has Roberts as a young career woman who gets more than she bargains for when her boss, and secret lover (Wilson), leaves his wife (Graham) for her.
SALES Architect
HEADS OR TAILS? (TESTA O CROCE?)
DIRECTORS Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis
STARS Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Alessandro Borghi, John C. Reilly
BUZZ The surrealist spirit of Italian cinema lives on in this mythical anti-Western from the directors of The Tale of King Crab. When a rebellious woman and her cowboy lover flee across the rugged Italian landscape with Buffalo Bill in pursuit, the result is a dreamy, genre-muddling tale of love, myth and resistance. Reilly plays the legendary showman with poetic grit in this Un Certain Regard premiere.
SALES Cinetic Media
THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING
THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING
DIRECTOR Francis Lawrence
STARS Jesse Plemons, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak
BUZZ Lionsgate goes big with this $150M+ return to Panem, centered on a young Haymitch Abernathy during the infamous Second Quarter Quell. With franchise veterans behind the camera and a fresh, starry cast, this prequel is the rare tentpole lighting up the indie market.
SALES Lionsgate
THE INVITE
DIRECTOR Olivia Wilde
STARS Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Ed Norton, Penelope Cruz
BUZZ Wilde’s directorial follow-up to Don’t Worry Darling is one of the hottest comedy packages of the fest, with the A-list cast starring as two married couples. One couple with marital problems invites over their sexy neighbors one night, only for dark secrets to come to the forefront.
SALES FilmNation (international), UTA (U.S.)
KARMA
DIRECTOR Guillaume Canet
STARS Marion Cotillard, Denis Ménochet, Leonardo Sbaraglia
BUZZ Details are under wraps, but this Canet-Cotillard psychological thriller, with its promised combination of top-end French stars on a solid genre storyline, is already one of the market’s most buzzed-about.
SALES Pathé
LES MISÉRABLES
DIRECTOR Fred Cavayé
STARS Vincent Lindon, Tahar Rahim, Noémie Merlant
BUZZ Les Mis meets Taken in this action-skewed adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic, with Studiocanal promising high-octane spectacle and costume-packed prestige in equal measure.
SALES Studiocanal
THE PAINTED BRIDE
DIRECTOR Jeremiah Zagar
STARS Jeremy Allen White, Mandy Patinkin, Isabella Rossellin
BUZZ The new feature from Hustle and We are Animals director Zagar, The Bear star White plays a man who divides his time between caring for his family and devotion to an ambitious art project before a crisis takes him back home to Baltimore and transforms his world. Said to combine live action with stop-motion animation, it looks like a pick for specialist distributors at home and abroad.
SALES Charades/New Europe (international), WME Independent (North America)
PRETEND I’M NOT HERE
DIRECTOR Simon Bird
STARS Matthew Broderick, Sally Hawkins, Martin Freeman
BUZZ A dark comedy set in WWII-era Netherlands, this adaptation of Hans Keilson’s novella sees an ordinary couple hiding a Jewish man…until proximity breeds more than just empathy. The cast, including double-Oscar nominee Hawkins, should elevate the material to awards contention, with Bird, director of Brit comedy hit The Inbetweeners, providing a laugh guarantee.
SALES Cornerstone (Intl), Cornerstone/CAA Media Finance (U.S.)
POSSUM SONG
DIRECTOR Greg Kwedar
STARS Miles Teller
BUZZ For the fans of WTF filmmaking: Sing Sing director Kwedar veers into the realm of fantastic comedy in this new project, which sees Top Gun: Maverick star Teller playing a Nashville star who stole the songs for hit debut album and strikes a Faustian bargain with a magical possum for inspiration for his make-or-break follow-up.
SALES FilmNation (international), FilmNation/CAA Media Finance (North America)
RAPTURE
DIRECTOR Jordan Tannahill
STARS Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Manu Ríos
BUZZ High-concept horror has become a go-to genre for the international market, raising the appeal of this period feature, from first-time director Tannahill, which imagines a medieval monastery beset by zombies.
SALES HanWay Films
THE RETURN OF STANLEY ATWELL
DIRECTOR Brian Welsh
STARS Nicholas Galitzine, Marisa Abela
BUZZ This gothic-fueled punky inheritance thriller marks Scottish director Welsh’s second collaboration with Steven Soderbergh — the Oscar-winner is executive producing, based on his own story — and is positioned to be the cool kids choice at this year’s Cannes market.
SALES Protagonist Pictures
RUIN
DIRECTOR Niki Caro
STARS Gal Gadot, Matthias Schoenaerts
BUZZ The latest from Caro, director of The Zookeeper’s Wife and Disney’s live-action Mulan, is period drama with an action edge that will be atop every studio and indie buyer’s list. Set in the ruins of post-WWII Germany, and based on the Black List-topping screenplay written by Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo (Marvel’s Eternals), it sees Gadot playing a recently-released concentration camp inmate who teams up with a German soldier (Schoenaerts) to take revenge on a Nazi SS squad.
SALES Veterans (international), UTA Independent Film Group, WME Independent, CAA Media Finance (U.S.).
THE RULE OF THREE
DIRECTOR James Roday Rodriguez
STARS Thomasin McKenzie, Katie Douglas
BUZZ A cursed countdown, 90s nostalgia, and a ride-or-die teen friendship power this sharp horror debut, being set up, from the team behind Smile, as the first in a planned trilogy, with franchise potential expected to draw in indie buyers.
SALES Protagonist Pictures
SCANDALOUS!
DIRECTOR Colman Domingo
STARS Sydney Sweeney, David Jonsson
BUZZ Double Oscar nominee Domingo (Rustin, Sing Sing) is set to make his directorial debut with this period drama about the forbidden love affair between film star Kim Novak (Sweeney) and Sammy Davis Jr. (Jonsson) that has Oscar bait written all over it.
SALES 193
SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY BOTTOM
DIRECTOR Steve Cox
STARS Shaun, Timmy, The Farmer, The Naughty Pigs
BUZZ Family-friendly buyers will be lining up to be fleeced by StudioCanal as it rolls out its third Shaun The Sheep movie, an Aardman claymation feature that, unlike recent Oscar nominee Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, is not locked up in the company’s Netflix deal and will be available for the indie market.
SALES StudioCanal
SHUTOUT
DIRECTOR David O. Russell
STARS Robert De Niro, Jenna Ortega
BUZZ Russell is bringing together generational talents — Gen Z queen Ortega and Boomer legend De Niro — for a movie set in the world of high-stakes pool, with the Oscar-winner playing a pool hall hustler who trains the Wednesday star, a prodigy. The director and De Niro are re-teaming for the first time since Silver Linings Playbook.
SALES Black Bear (international), CAA Media Finance (U.S.)
SPYMASTERS
DIRECTOR Lance Kawas
STARS Malin Akerman, Michael Jai White
BUZZ Nineties-style erotic thrillers are back — not least since Babygirl — and this what-it-says-on-the-tin espionage tale looks to scratch the itch of buyers yearning for a return to those steamy actioners, with a story of a CIA operative tasked with surveilling, and possibly eliminating, a former lover.
SALES Bleiberg Entertainment
STRANGE ARRIVALS
DIRECTOR Roger Ross Williams
STARS Colman Domingo, Demi Moore
BUZZ Hot off their Oscar nominations (the second year in a row for Domingo), the stars will play the interracial couple who became the first reported case of an alien abduction. Inspired by a real-life story, the film will be Williams’ second narrative feature after an Oscar-winning career in documentary.
SALES Rocket Science (international); WME Independent, CAA Media Finance (U.S.)
UNTAMABLE
DIRECTOR Thomas Ngijol
STARS Thomas Ngijol, Danilo Melande
BUZZ A gritty police thriller set in Cameroon, this dramatic shift from comic-turned-director Ngijol, is targeting the arthouse crossover crowd, with an inspired-by-true-life story of a police chief (Ngijol), investigating the murder of a police officer in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé.
SALES Goodfellas
UNTITLED CELEBRITY PASS MOVIE
DIRECTOR David Wain
STARS Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery
BUZZ For a distributor looking for a hot comedy package, Deutch, who is in the fest with Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, stars as a Mid-Western future bride who is Hollywood-bound, pursuing her celebrity hall pass after her fiancé meets his celebrity hall pass and uses it.
SALES 193
