Leos Carax’s ‘Annette’ with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver will open the 74th Cannes Film Festival

The 74th Cannes International Film Festival runs July 6-17

Nine years after the remarkable Holy Motors, presented in competition, Leos Carax will unveil in Cannes his new feature, a film eagerly awaited by cinephiles around the world. Annette, Carax’s first film in English, will open the Cannes 74th International Film Festival on Tuesday, July 6th.

Set in contemporary Los Angeles, Annette tells the story of Henry, a stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor and Ann, a singer of international renown. In the spotlight, they are the perfect couple, healthy, happy, and glamourous. The birth of their first child, Annette, a mysterious girl with an exceptional destiny, will change their lives.

Produced by Charles Gillibert, Annette, the director’s sixth feature film, based on Carax’s original idea, featuring a soundtrack composed by Sparks and starring Marion Cotillard, Adam Driver and Simon Helberg, will premiere internationally and will enter the competition, following the opening ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes’ Palais des festivals. It will simultaneously be released in French cinemas.

Visionary and enigmatic, Leos Carax has authored some of the most beautiful moments of French cinema in the last 35 years, with a filmography that has never ceased to display his mastery of directing. A poetic genius with an overflowing imagination, “l’enfant terrible of French cinema” has consistently transcended filmic codes and genres to create a world full of visions and ghosts.

“Every Leos Carax film is an event. And this one delivers on its promises! Annette is the gift that lovers of cinema, music and culture were hoping for, one that we have been yearning for during the past year,” says Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes.

“We couldn’t have dreamed of a more beautiful reunion with cinema and the silver screen, in the Palais des Festivals where films come to assert their splendor”, concludes Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate. “Carax’s cinema is an expression of these powerful gestures, these mysterious alchemies that makes the secret of cinema’s modernity and eternity.”

Annette is produced by Charles Gillibert (CG Cinéma International), Paul-Dominique Vacharasinthu (Tribus P. Films) and Adam Driver, in association with Amazon Studios, Arte and Canal+. It is distributed in France by UGC, by Amazon in the USA and sold internationally by Kinology. The film will be released in France, Tuesday, July 6th, on the day of its Cannes’ Premiere.

The opening ceremony of the 74th Festival de Cannes will take place on July 6, 2021. It will be broadcast by Canal+ in France, as well as in partnering cinema theaters.

Chaired by the American film director Spike Lee, the Jury of the Competition will announce the winners at the closing ceremony on Saturday, July 17th.