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The Match Factory has closed more international distribution deals for the Cannes Competition title Sirat by Oliver Laxe not already picked up by Neon and Mubi.

The Jury Prize winner has also been acquired by Altitude for UK and Ireland, Cine Video y TV for Latin America, Cineart for the Benelux, while Germany and Austria goes to Pandora Film and Switzerland goes to Filmcoopi.

Sirat centers on a father and son joining a group of itinerant ravers in the deserts of Morocco in search for one last party. The Hollywood Reporter’s review called it a “techno-infused meditation on death and grief.”

Other deals include Japan (Transformer), South Korea (Challan), Taiwan (Andrews Film), Australia and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Poland (New Horizons), Sweden (TriArt Film) and Norway (Fidalgo). Sirat, which also earned the Cannes Soundtrack Award in Cannes, earlier went to Neon for North America and Mubi took the film for Italy,...

Neon has secured distribution rights to another critical favorite Cannes film, this time Oliver Laxe’s road movie “Sirât.” The film follows a group of individuals who meet at a desert rave and go in search of a missing girl.

Co-written by Laxe alongside frequent collaborator Santiago Fillol, the film stars Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda and Jade Oukid. Neon is planning a North American theatrical release later this year.

In his review for TheWrap, Steve Pond praised the film’s craft but noted its constant brutality gets tiring.

“‘Sirât’ is bold in its depiction of a decaying world in which some people can still find release. But its insistent brutality feels less bold than exhausting, and the question asked by one of the characters – ‘Is this what the end of the world feels like?’ – has an easy answer: Hell, yeah,” he wrote, adding that “Sirât” follows a trend...

Neon has secured North American distribution rights to Oliver Laxe’s Sirât following the film’s competition debut at Cannes. The deal, announced on the opening day of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, marks Neon’s fourth competition acquisition this year.

Sirât premiered on May 15, 2025, offering an atmospheric journey into the deserts of southern Morocco. The narrative follows Luis, portrayed by Sergi López, alongside his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona), as they search for a daughter who vanished amid a desert rave.

Laxe co-wrote the screenplay with Santiago Fillol, melding spiritual symbolism and raw human emotion. Cinematographer Mauro Herce Mira captured the film on Super 16mm, underscoring its tactile, hypnotic quality.

The Spanish-French co-production received €1.2 million in development funding from Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts before filming across Teruel and the Moroccan Sahara. Laxe described Sirât as “accessible art with a tribal beat,” emphasizing its fusion of mysticism and music.

Neon has bought North American rights to Oliver Laxe‘s “Sirât” following its critically acclaimed debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It has been a busy festival for the distributor, which acquired North American rights to Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s “The Secret Agent” and Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” both of which are in competition.

Neon is riding high, having picked up an Oscar for best picture this year for “Anora,” which debuted at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or. It previously won best picture for 2019’s “Parasite.” At Cannes, Neon is a force, having set a record by releasing the five last Palme d’Or winners. Will it repeat the feat a sixth time? We’ll know this Saturday when Cannes unveils the prize winners.

“Sirât” was co-written by Laxe alongside frequent collaborator Santiago Fillol. It stars Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda,...

Mubi has picked up yet another Cannes title after taking Oliver Laxe’s Sirat for Italy, Turkey and India.

The deal with sales outfit The Match Factory will see the French-born Spanish director’s fourth feature, and his first in Cannes competition, go to the arthouse film streamer. In a related sale, Neon acquired Sirat for North America, and will release the pic later this year in theaters.

Sirat centers on a father and son joining a group of itinerant ravers in the deserts of Morocco in search for one last party. The Hollywood Reporter’s review called it a “techno-infused meditation on death and grief.”

A synopsis from the film’s producers explains: “A father (Sergi López) and his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They’re searching for Mar — daughter and sister — who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties.

Mubi’s shopping spree of Cannes competition titles is continuing at pace.

The distributor, streaming platform and production company has now picked up “Sirât,” Oliver Laxe’s hugely well-received feature, marking the 9th film vying for the 2025 Palme d’Or to now join Mubi’s upcoming slate.

The Match Factory is handling international sales of the film, with Mubi to announce release plans in the near future.

“Sirât” follows a father (Sergi López) and his son who arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They’re searching for Mar — daughter and sister — who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. Surrounded by electronic music and a raw, unfamiliar sense of freedom, they hand out her photo again and again. Hope is fading but they push through and follow a group of ravers heading to one last party in the desert. As they venture deeper into the burning wilderness,...

Illustration by Franz Lang.I never expected my first dispatch from the 78th Cannes Film Festival to begin with a message shared on Truth Social. Deranged as it sounds, though, Trump’s promise to impose one-hundred percent tariffs on foreign film productions has hovered ominously over the Croisette. “The Movie Industry in America is Dying a very fast death,” President Trump ranted on May 5 (caps his), pointing his finger at the incentives other countries are offering US filmmakers to draw them away from Hollywood’s hallowed grounds. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations,” apparently, “and therefore, a National Security threat.” Perhaps the edition’s more muted atmosphere can be chalked up to this economic volatility. “Where did the hype go?” Variety quotes an anonymous streaming-service executive as wondering early into the fest. Indeed, studios seem less inclined than usual to splash out money on advertising; no equivalent of...

For the French-Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe, a competition berth in Cannes has been a long time coming. Laxe was here in 2010 (You All Are Captains), 2016 (Mimosas), and 2019 (Fire Will Come) without once going home empty-handed, and he now rises to the occasion with Sirat, his grandest, most adventurous work yet: the kind of bold, auteurist arrival that seems to happen more here than any other festival. The story takes place in Morocco, which provided the backdrop of Laxe’s first two films, and follows a father searching for his daughter amidst the dust and drugs of an illegal rave scene in and around the Atlas Mountains. There’s a delicious touch of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore to that setup, but Sirat is more in the lineage of William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, even Mad Max: a story about a ragtag group attempting to move some monstrous vehicles over a landscape...

Filmmaker Oliver Laxe brings a kind of humbling brilliance to “Sirât,” his inaugural Cannes competition entry, after catching attention in sidebars for his previous films. It’s the kind of film that Cannes attendees from far and wide come to the festival for: sui generis and evading any classification, emanating from a wholly personal vision of cinema while not resisting galvanizing, and sometimes crowd-pleasing, pleasures.

Born in France to Galician parents, and shooting the majority of his work to date in Morocco, Laxe’s work operates in the interstices of borders and cultures, but wholly bypasses appropriation. It’s always visually transportive and grimly sublime, focusing on simple plots and conflicts that provide ample space for philosophical and existential contemplation. And “Sirât” is undoubtedly his most fully realized work in his regard, notable too for folding in the visceral pleasures of contemporary genre and even blockbuster cinema.

The world Laxe...

La primera de las dos candidatas españolas a la Palma de Oro triunfa en el Festival. © Getty Images

Se estrenaron Sound of Falling, Two Prosecutors y Dossier 137, pero ninguna ha sacudido tanto la Competencia Oficial del Festival de Cannes 2025 como la española Sirat, dirigida por Oliver Laxe. Y no, no es chauvinismo nacional: las reacciones hablan por sí solas.

Jessica Kiang, de Variety, ha destacado su potencia emocional y psicológica, asegurando que golpea «de un modo que no podemos predecir», al tiempo que logra «desatar tu instinto de huida y a la vez mantenerte pegado a la butaca». Desde Deadline, Damon Wise la describe como «mitad road movie existencial, mitad ciencia ficción apocalíptica, es una desconcertante mezcla de Zabriskie Point y Fury Road» y apunta a que «posiblemente estaría mejor situada en la sección de medianoche del Festival», de lo loca que es. Jonathan Romney, de Screen Daily, la...

When he was selected for the prestigious competition section this past April, Paris-born Spanish of Galician background filmmaker Óliver Laxe achieved a remarkable feat of having all four of his films in all sections of Cannes. His first three films premiered as such You All Are Captains (2010 – Directors’ Fortnight / Fipresci award winner), Mimosas (2016 – Critics’ Week / Nespresso Grand Prize winner), and the Jury Prize-winning Fire Will Come (2019 – Un Certain Regard) (read ★★★½ review).

The fourth film in competition, Sirat (also titled After) was shot in Spain and Morocco this past May, and stars Sergi López and Bruno Núñez among the mini ensemble.…...

At some point in Oliver Laxe’s beguiling new film Sirat, a character asks a fellow traveler their thoughts on what the end of the world might feel like. The friend considers the question before responding, somewhat half-heartedly: “It’s been the end of the world for a long time.”

This sentiment haunts Sirat, which seemingly takes place in a near-apocalyptic future and follows a group of ravers as they journey through the Moroccan desert in search of one last party. Home for this crew is a worn-out caravan, stocked with food, water and other provisions. Community is anyone they meet either at or on their way to dance parties. And on the occasion they turn on the radio, the news warns of escalating wars, depleting resources and a breakdown in diplomatic relations. The harshness of this world, conjured by Laxe with his signature painterly vision, feels a lot like our own.

We are all merely the playthings of a callous God. If there’s one thing that both the people in and the people watching Oliver Laxe’s extraordinarily strange and nerve-wracking “Sirât” can agree on, it must be that. For the characters on this purgatorial journey from the middle of nowhere to the back end of beyond, that God is the unseen force that gradually thins their number, saps their spirits and forces them to consider the idea of life after hope. For the viewer, it might very well be co-writer-director Laxe himself, as he pummels us emotionally and psychologically in ways we can’t predict, and have done little to deserve. To be clear: This is both a heavy caution and a high compliment. Not many movies can trigger your flight instinct while rooting you to your seat.

An array of battered speakers is being assembled in the Moroccan desert.

French-Spanish director Óliver Laxe makes his debut in the Cannes Film Festival Competition with a film that arguably would be better placed in one of the festival’s Midnight slots. Part existential road movie, part apocalyptic sci-fi, it’s a puzzling mix of Zabriskie Point and Fury Road that starts with a bang but ends in a curiously minor key. Some of its images are indelible, in the same way Antonioni’s were in 1970, but Laxe’s major weapon here is his sound design, a weaponized barrage of techno with sub-bass that hits like an earthquake and rumbles in the gut.

It begins in the Moroccan desert, where a crew of misfits has gathered for a monster rave that goes on day and night. This is not a youth-culture party event but something much more serious; it makes The Matrix Reloaded’s Zion rave scene look kind of fun. All...

Oliver Laxe competirá en la Croisette con su cuarto largometraje. © BTeam Pictures

BTeam Pictures ha desvelado el tráiler y póster de la película Sirat, el cuarto largometraje del cineasta gallego Oliver Laxe con sello de producción de El Deseo (de los hermanos Agustín y Pedro Almodóvar).

Sirat nos trasladará a las montañas del sur de Marruecos, donde un padre (Sergi López) y su hijo (Bruno Núñez) buscan a Mar, hija y hermana desaparecida en una rave. Reparten su foto una y otra vez rodeados de música electrónica y un tipo de libertad que desconocen. Allí deciden seguir a un grupo de raveros en la búsqueda de una última fiesta que se celebrará en el desierto, donde esperan encontrar a la joven desaparecida.

El director vuelve a rodearse de actores no profesionales en su película, en sus palabras, «más abierta/comercial y radical por igual».

Se trata de una de las...

"Where's the party?" The Match Factory & Movistar Plus+ have debuted the first official festival trailer for the film titled Sirat, the latest from Spanish-French filmmaker Óliver Laxe as his fourth feature. The Spain-produced film is included in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival official selection as one of the key films in the prestigious Main Competition. Premiering in jut a few weeks. After his daughter disappears at a rave, a father travels to Morocco up into the mountains with his son to search for her. She has been missing for months and they travel into the rave scene in hopes of finding her. Starring Sergi López & Bruno Núñez as the father & son. The title is most likely a reference to this (it all lines up): In Islam, "sirat" refers to a narrow bridge spanning the chasm of Hell, which believers are said to cross on the Day of Judgment. It's also...

Will they find her? Movistar Plus+ in Spain has revealed a first look teaser trailer for the film titled Sirat, made by Spanish-French filmmaker Óliver Laxe as his fourth feature. The Spain-produced film is included in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival official selection revealed today, playing as one of the 19 films in the prestigious Main Competition. After his daughter disappears at a rave, a father travels to Morocco up into the mountains with his son to search for her. She has been missing for months and they travel into the rave scene in hopes of finding her. Starring Sergi López & Bruno Núñez as the father & son. The title is most likely a reference to this (it all lines up): In Islam, "sirat" refers to a narrow bridge spanning the chasm of Hell, which believers are said to cross on the Day of Judgment. It's also a broader concept representing the...

Dieciséis años después, el cine español vuelve a duplicar presencia en la Competición Oficial de la Croisette.

© Cannes

Hoy es un día para celebrar. Porque esta mañana se ha desvelado la programación oficial del Festival de Cannes 2025 y, por primera vez desde aquel histórico 2009 –cuando coincidieron Isabel Coixet y Pedro Almodóvar–, dos cineastas españoles competirán por la ansiada Palma de Oro. Ellos son Carla Simón (recordemos que ganó el Oso de Oro en la Berlinale 2022 con Alcarràs) y Oliver Laxe. España vuelve a estar doblemente representada en la Croisette con sus nuevos largometrajes: Romería y Sirat, respectivamente.

Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón, es una obra profundamente personal en la que la directora catalana se sumerge en la memoria de su familia biológica paterna. La historia sigue a Marina (interpretada por la debutante Llúcia Garcia Torras), una joven adoptada que viaja a Vigo para encontrarse por primera con la familia de su padre biológico.

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 78th edition (May 13-24).

Scroll down for full line-up

Festival director Thierry Frémaux revealed the Official Selection at a press conference at the Ugc Montparnasse cinema in Paris alongside festival president Iris Knobloch.

A diverse range of features make up the 2025 Competition, mixing veteran auteurs with up-and-coming directors.

Acclaimed directors the Dardenne Brothers, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater and Joachim Trier are among those selected for Cannes Competition 2025.

Newcomers to the Competition include genre specialist Ari Aster, Berlin Golden Bear winner Carla Simon as well as Germany’s Mascha Schilinski.

Six...

During a Movistar+ presentation at the historic Telefónica Building on Madrid’s Gran Via this afternoon, renowned writer-director-producer duo Los Javis – Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – shared early details about their next project, “La bola negra,” a multi-timelined feature about what it is and has meant to be a gay man in Spain throughout the last century.

A day after their series “La Mesías” won the Rose d’Or Award for best mini or limited series at Content Americas, Ambrossi and Calvo – known locally as Los Javis – revealed that they’re in the final stages of putting the project together and will begin shooting later this year. Abrossi and Calvo are writing, directing, and co-producing the feature through their label Suma Content, which is teaming with Movistar+, its production and distribution partner, on “La Mesías.”

“La bola negra” is a “queer revisitation of a part of the history of our country,...

Following up Wendell & Wild, animation wizard Henry Selick is planning to return to the world of Neil Gaiman with an adaptation of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. “Instead of a child going to this other world with a monstrous mother, it’s a monstrous mother who comes into our world to wreak havoc on a kid’s life,” Selick told Variety, contrasting the film with his previous Gaiman adaptation Coraline. Gaiman’s 2013 novel follows “an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier.” Selick is currently shopping the project around, so hopefully we’ll have distribution news soon.

While Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem was recently adapted by Alexander Woo, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss for the Netflix series, a feature adaptation is now in the works from Zhang Yimou. As reported at the Shanghai International Film Festival,...

The Match Factory is set to handle international sales on a new film by “Fire Will Come” director Oliver Laxe, headlined by Sergi López, star of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

Having begun production, shooting in Spain and then Morocco, the untitled Oliver Laxe project is a Movistar Plus+ original film produced with Pedro and Agustín Almodovar’s El Deseo, Laxe’s Galicia-based label Filmes da Ermida, Oriol Maymó’s Uri Films in Barcelona, and Paris’s 4 A 4 Productions.

The latest from Laxe follows Cannes wins for all his first three features. 2010’s “You Are All Captains,” Laxe’s debut feature, walked off with a Directors’ Fortnight Fipresci Award; 2016’s “Mimosas” scooped the Critics’ Week top Grand Prize, “Fire Will Come” a 2019 Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.

Co-written with “Matadero” director Santiago Fillol, also a co-scribe on “Fire Will Come,” Laxe’s next turns on a man...