2022 Cannes Directors Fortnight lineup: ‘Men,’ women directors and French favorites

Erik Anderson April 19, 2022

The 54th Directors’ Fortnight selection selection of the Cannes Film Festival has been announced, featuring French favorites, female-fronted films and several first time films. The lineup will be the last one for outgoing artistic director Paolo Moretti.

Pietro Marcello’s L’envol (Scarlet) will open the sidebar on May 18. The musical film takes place somewhere in the North of France, Juliette grows up alone with her father, Raphaël, a soldier who survived the First World War. Passionate about singing and music, the solitary young girl meets a magician one summer who promises her that scarlet sails will come one day to take her away from her village.

A24 will have two films represented in the sidebar this year, Alex Garland’s horror film Men, with Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley, which will play in the Special Screening section, and God’s Creatures, a psychological thriller directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, the filmmaking duo who made their feature debut with the Sundance film The Fits. Their new film is set in an Irish fishing village and stars Aisling Franciosi, Emily Watson and Paul Mescal.

Many French female director who were expected to feature in the Official Selection will have their movies world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight instead, including Lea Mysius (The Five Devils), Mia Hansen-Love (One Fine Morning), Alice Winocour (Paris Memories).

One Fine Morning stars Lea Seydoux (also in the comp title Crimes of the Future), Melvil Poupaud and Nicole Garcia. The film revolves around a young single mother who is looking after her ill father and starts an affair with a friend despite the fact that he’s already in a relationship.

Paris Memories stars Virginie Efira (of last year’s Benedetta and this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s emcee) as a survivor of the Paris attacks of November 2015 who embarks on a quest to find happiness again. Benoît Magimel (Living) also stars.

Moretti said during the press conference held in Paris on Tuesday that one Asian film – one Chinese movie — will be added at a latter stage.

In talking about the high presence of female directors in the lineup, Moretti said the sidebar “aspires to represent the diversity of world cinema.” He also mentioned that the lineup showcased many French movies due to the fact that so many were submitted.

“French cinema is very present because it’s the major country that submit films so we’ll celebrate this vitality,” added Moretti.

Kelly Reichardt will be awarded the Carrosse d’Or on May 18, 2022 in Cannes, during the Directors’ Fortnight’s opening ceremony. Reichardt will appear in the main competition for the first time ever this year, with her film Showing Up, starring Michelle Williams and Hong Chau.

Directors’ Fortnight, aka Quinzane des réalisateurs, will showcase films by 11 female directors and eight feature debuts. By comparison, Cannes Film Festival’s 19 competition titles currently has only three films directed by women.

The last title of the selection will be announced soon, as well as the selection of short and medium-length films.

L’ENVOL (Scarlet)

by Pietro Marcello

Opening film

1976

by Manuela Martelli

First feature film

THE DAM (Al-Sadd, السّد , Le Barrage)

by Ali Cherri

First feature film

LES ANNÉES SUPER 8 (The Super 8 Years)

by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot

First feature film

ASHKAL

by Youssef Chebbi

First feature film

LES CINQ DIABLES (The Five Devils)

by Léa Mysius

DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA

by Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor

LA DÉRIVE DES CONTINENTS (AU SUD) (Continental Drift (South))

by Lionel Baier

EL AGUA (The Water)

by Elena López Riera

First feature film

ENYS MEN

by Mark Jenkin

FALCON LAKE

by Charlotte Le Bon

First feature film

FOGO-FÁTUO (Will-o’-the-Wisp, Feu follet)

by João Pedro Rodrigues

FUNNY PAGES

by Owen Kline

First feature film

GOD’S CREATURES

by Anna Rose Holmer & Saela Davis

LES HARKIS (Harkis)

by Philippe Faucon

MEN

by Alex Garland

Special screnning

LA MONTAGNE (The Mountain)

by Thomas Salvador

PAMFIR

by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk

First feature film

REVOIR PARIS (Paris Memories)

by Alice Winocour

TAHT ALSHAJRA (تحت الشجرة , Under the Fig Trees, Sous les figues)

by Erige Sehiri

UN BEAU MATIN (One Fine Morning)

by Mia Hansen-Løve

UN VARÓN (A Male)

by Fabian Hernández

First feature film

LE PARFUM VERT (The Green Perfume)

by Nicolas Pariser

Closing film

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.