Will be part of the lineup of the independent Directors’ Fortnight sidebar to the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, organizers announced at a press conference on Tuesday morning in Paris.
Films in the Fortnight will include Russian director Kantemir Balagov’s English-language film “Butterfly Jam,” with Riley Keough and Barry Keoghan, which will open the section; the Neon documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” from David Greaves and his late father, William Greaves, which premiered at Sundance; Romanian provocateur Radu Jude’s “The Diary of a Chambermaid”; South Korean director July Jung’s “Dora”; “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning” from British filmmaker Clio Barnard; and Quentin Dupieux’s animated feature “Le Vertige,” his second Cannes film this year after “Full Phil,” which will be a midnight screening in the main festival.
As usual for this year’s Cannes, American filmmakers are almost entirely absent in the lineup, with the Greaves’ doc being a key exception.
The Fortnight does not present a jury award, but for the past two years it has given out an audience award, which went to Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” in 2024 and Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake” last year.
Directors’ Fortnight, which was originally titled La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs until the fact that réalisateurs is a masculine noun prompted a 2023 change to Quinzaine des Cinéastes, was the section that first brought Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Michael Haneke and George Lucas to Cannes. More recently, it presented Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash,” Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project” and Chloé Zhao’s “Songs My Brothers Taught Us.”
The Directors’ Fortnight lineup followed on the heels of the Monday announcement of the International Critics’ Week sidebar and last week’s press conference revealing the main festival’s official selection. Additions to the main lineup, including one more title that will be competing for the Palme d’Or, are expected in the coming days.
The Fortnight will open on May 13 and run through May 23.
The lineup:
“Butterfly Jam,” Kantemir Balagov (opening film)
“Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” David Greaves and William Greaves
“Diary of a Chambermaid,” Radu Jude
“Dora,” July Jung
“Gabin,” Maxene Voiseux
“Clarissa,” Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri
“Too Many Beasts,” Sarah Arnold
“Low Expectations,” Lave Forventninger
“Double Freedom,” Lisandro Alonso
“We Are Aliens,” Kohei Kadowaki
“Thanks for Coming,” Alain Cavalier
“I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,” Clio Barnard
“Atonement,” Reed Van Dyk
“Shana,” Lila Pinell
“Death Has No Master,” Jorge Thielen Armand
“Viva Carmen,” Sebastien Laudenbach
“9 Temples to Heaven,” Sompot Chidgasornpongse
“La Perra,” Dominga Sotomayor
“Le Vertige,” Quentin Dupieux (closing film)
Short films:
“In Search of the Grey Bird With Green Stripes,” Said Hamich Benlarbi
“Daughters of the Late Colonel,” Elizabeth Hobbs
“Eri,” Yano Honami
“Free Eliza (Notes on an Anatomical Imperfection),” Alexandra Matheou
“The Joyless Economy,” Marjorie Conrad
“Madrugada,” Sebastian Lojo
“Nothing Happens After Your Absence,” Ibrahim Omar
“Oh Boys,” Antonio Donato
“Pithead,” Wannes Vanspauwen and Poi De Piecker
