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La actriz de ‘Anora’ sustituiría a Sydney Sweeney. © Getty Images

De acuerdo con The Hollywood Reporter, Mikey Madison, la reciente ganadora del Oscar a la Mejor Actriz por Anora, está en conversaciones para protagonizar la adaptación cinematográfica de A24 de La máscara de la muerte roja, el célebre relato de Edgar Allan Poe. La actriz sustituiría a Sydney Sweeney, quien abandona el proyecto debido a conflictos de agenda.

Madison daría vida a dos hermanas gemelas en un mundo decadente en el que un príncipe loco acoge en su castillo a la élite adinerada mientras la peste se extiende por el país. La gemela perdida, que vive entre la clase baja, entra en el castillo en un ambiente de drogas, sexo, juego de tronos y un baile de máscaras que se desarrolla en siete habitaciones, cada una decorada con un color distinto.

La película, descrita como una versión «salvajemente revisionista», estará...

Every now and then, a new star emerges to take its place among the millions in the galaxy called Hollywood. Well, one such star that has recently awed and stunned the industry is Mikey Madison.

The 26-year-old actress captivated audiences and critics alike with her impeccable performance of a stripper in Sean Baker’s Anora, which not only bagged her the the Academy Award for Best Actress but also garnered multiple accolades for the film.

Fresh off her historic win as the first Generation Z actor to claim an Academy Award for Best Actress, Madison has become a focal point in Hollywood, with directors and studios eager to collaborate with the rising star. Starting off in the industry as a teenager in FX’s Better Things, she ended up starring in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to transforming herself as an actress with a knack for...

Following her Academy Award win for Anora, Mikey Madison has found her next project in an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story The Masque of the Red Death. She was reportedly offered the villain role in Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter, but allegedly passed on the movie over a pay disagreement. Madison can pick whatever project she wants and seems to have found the perfect follow-up to Anora, one that was first published in 1842.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Madison has signed on to star in director Charlie Polinger's adaptation of The Masque of the Red Death for A24. She will play twin sisters in a story that follows a mad prince who takes the noble class into his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. A long-lost twin living among the lower class finds her way into the castle and stumbles upon a decadent world. The...

Mikey Madison is set to replace Sydney Sweeney in what sounds like a pretty out-there adaptation of Masque of the Red Death.

The work of Edgar Allan Poe has been adapted for the big and small screen numerous times over the years, with several of the legendary writer's stories influencing Mike Flanagan's recent retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher.

The acclaimed Netflix miniseries put its own unique spin on The Masque of the Red Death, and we recently got word that a feature adaptation was in the works, with A24 and Picturehouse developing the project, and Charlie Polinger set to write and direct.

Sweeney was in talks to play the lead role - believed to be a gender-switched take on Prince Prospero - but has now been forced to drop out due to a scheduling conflict, with the Anora Oscar-winner stepping in as her replacement.

Nexus Point News broke the story,...

The A24 adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death is to shoot this year, with Mikey Madison replacing Sydney Sweeney in the lead.

In a story that we covered in January, A24 and Picturestart are teaming to tackle an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic short story, The Masque Of The Red Death. It centres on a group of privileged nobles who lock themselves away for endless revelry while a plague decimates the outside world. You can probably imagine that not everything goes to plan for the wealthy partygoers.

It’ll be the feature debut of New York filmmaker and theatre director Charlie Polinger, and the project is said to be ‘wildly revisionist and darkly comedic.’

The whole ‘eat the rich’ genre continues to surge, and should this project not deviate too far from the source material, we could be looking at another film...

Anora Best Actress Oscar winner Mikey Madison is in talks to replace Sydney Sweeney in A24’s feature take of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. No deal is done.

The pic from Picturestart, which A24 will release around the globe, is billed as a “wildly revisionist” take on the short story from filmmaker Charlie Polinger. Polinger and Lucy McKendrick will executive produce.

Madison will reportedly portray twin sisters in a world where a mad prince (Prince Prospero in the original 1842 short story) welcomes wealthy elites into his castle as plague spreads across the land. The long-lost twin, who lives among the lower class, enters the castle in what is an atmosphere of drugs, sex and game of thrones as Prospero throws a masquerade ball in seven rooms, each decorated with a different color. In the original short, a mysterious figure enters the castle disguised as a Red Death victim.

THR reports that Mikey Madison is in talks to star in The Masque of the Red Death, the upcoming reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale from filmmaker Charlie Polinger. Sydney Sweeney was initially set to star in the movie, but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

Sources tell THR that Madison would play “twin sisters in a story that sees a mad prince take in the noble class into his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. The story sees a long-lost twin, hidden among the lower class, enter the castle and into a decadent world of orgies, opium, power schemes, revenge and decapitations.” Sounds like a blast. The film comes from A24, which will handle global distribution, with production by Picturestart. The Masque of the Red Death will shoot at the end of the year or in early 2026.

Related Reptilia: Mikey Madison & Kirsten Dunst...

A recent Oscar winner may replace Sydney Sweeney in A24's new movie The Masque of the Red Death by filmmaker Charlie Polinger. The new film is a reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's 1824 short story of the same name. Sweeney was previously attached to the project but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. She is currently filming Euphoria season 3.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mikey Madison is reportedly in talks to star in A24's The Masque of the Red Death, set to start production this year. The new A24 adaptation is positioned as "a quintessential A24 movie" with the potential of resonating among "the TikTok class" through memes and "eyebrow raising" scenes. Madison would reportedly play dual roles as a pair of long-lost twin sisters who enter a mad prince's castle during a plague and into a depraved royal world.

What This Means For The Masque...

Mikey Madison has her sights on a new role!

The 26-year-old Oscar winner is reportedly in talks to star in the upcoming A24 film The Masque of the Red Death, a reimagining of the Edgar Allen Poe story, according to THR.

Mikey would be taking over the lead role from Sydney Sweeney, who was attached to the project earlier this year, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. (She has quite the list of upcoming projects!)

Keep reading to find out more…

In The Masque of the Red Death, from filmmaker Charlie Polinger, Mikey “would play twin sisters in a story that sees a mad prince take in the noble class into his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. The story sees a long-lost twin, hidden among the lower class, enter the castle and into a decadent world of orgies, opium, power schemes, revenge and decapitations.”

The upcoming film...

Mikey Madison is in negotiations to star in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most chilling tales. The AnoraOscar-winner is in talks to star in a reimagining of The Masque of the Red Death, Poe's 1842 tale of decadence, disease, and decay. The dual role was previously set to be played by Madison's Once Upon a Time In Hollywood castmate Sydney Sweeney, who has left the project. The Hollywood Reporter says that the film is due to shoot late this year or early next year.

In the film, Madison would play a pair of twin sisters. One is a princess who retreats with the rest of the aristocracy into a mad prince's castle, while a devastating plague, the Red Death, devastates the countryside. The other twin is hidden among the lower classes, and sees firsthand how the Red Death (which makes its victims agonizingly bleed from every orifice before...

It was announced earlier this year that A24 and Picturestart were developing a new adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. Today, THR reports that it may have found its new star.

Oscar winner Mikey Madison is in talks to star.

Sydney Sweeney (Immaculate) was previously attached to the film but dropped out due to scheduling issues.

Charlie Polinger is writing and directing The Masque of the Red Death for A24, said to be a “wildly revisionist and darkly comedic take on the short story.”

Madison would play “twin sisters in a story that sees a mad prince take in the noble class into his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. The story sees a long-lost twin, hidden among the lower class, enter the castle and into a decadent world of orgies, opium, power schemes, revenge and decapitations.”

THR also describes the project as “a quintessential A24 movie,...

Mikey Madison has landed another buzzy project after nabbing the Oscar for her performance in “Anora.” The actor is in talks to lead A24 and Picturestart’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” writer/director Charlie Polinger’s wildly revisionist take on the short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe.

Madison replaces Sydney Sweeney, who sources say dropped from the project due to scheduling conflicts. Polinger and Lucy McKendrick will executive produce. A24 has acquired worldwide distribution rights for the film.

Polinger is currently in post-production on his film “The Plague,” which was made independently and stars Joel Edgerton. He is represented by UTA and Anonymous Content.

Madison will next star in “Reptilia” alongside Kirsten Dunst. The thriller tells the story of a dental hygienist who is seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade. Alejandro Landes Echavarría,...

“Anora” Oscar winner Mikey Madison is in talks to star in an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story called “The Masque of the Red Death” that is set up at A24, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.

Charlie Polinger, a playwright who is the director of his upcoming debut film “The Plague,” is directing what’s described as a “wildly revisionist take” on the Poe short story. Polinger is also executive producing the film alongside Lucy McKendrick.

Sydney Sweeney was originally meant to star in the film, but a source says she dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts. The project was first reported back in January, with A24 acquiring worldwide distribution rights for the film.

A24 had no comment.

“Red Death” is a short originally published in 1842 about the Prince Prospero as he tries to hide from a plague by hiding himself in an abbey,...

After winning the Oscar for Best Actress at the recent Academy Awards, Mikey Madison has found her next project and is in talks to star in “Masque of the Red Death,” writer/director Charlie Polinger’s wildly revisionist take on the short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe, for A24 and Picturestart, The Wrap has learned.

Sydney Sweeney was previously on board to star, but bowed out due to scheduling conflicts.

The “Masque of the Red Death” centers on the long-lost twin sister of a Duchess who infiltrates the kingdom’s walls, impersonating her dead sister, who, unbeknownst to the kingdom, fell victim to the fast-rising killer pandemic known as “The Red Death.”

Polinger and Lucy McKendrick will executive produce. A24 has acquired worldwide distribution rights for the film.

Previously, Madison was briefly in talks, but ended up passed on joining Ryan Gosling in a “Star Wars” movie called “Starfighter,...

Mikey Madison has set one of her first roles since winning the Oscar for her performance in Neon’s Anora.

Madison is in talks to star in The Masque of the Red Death, a re-imagining of the creepy Edgar Allan Poe story from filmmaker Charlie Polinger. It hails from A24, which will distribute worldwide, and Picturestart, which is producing.

Madison has developed a reputation of being very particular in choosing her roles, and despite numerous outreaches, has not engaged in much since her comet-like ascendance after Anora premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. (There are two exceptions. She was in brief talks to play a villain in Star Wars movie Starfighter, but those talks broke down over pay. She also attached herself to the package Reptilia, about a dental hygienist who falls in love with a mermaid.)

Now, Madison may have found a role that could be a...

Courtney Eaton and Sophie Nélisse, two breakout performers from “Yellowjackets,” will co-star in an adaptation of Kathleen Glasgow’s novel, “Girl in Pieces.”

The Space Program, a New York-based independent film production company led by Lizzie Shapiro, Lexi Tannenholtz and Gus Deardoff, will produce the film alongside Eaton and Nélisse.

“Girl in Pieces” was embraced on BookTok, the TikTok literary subculture, and has been on the New York Times young adult bestseller list for more than three consecutive years. It follows Charlie Davis, a young woman recently released from a psychiatric ward in Minnesota after a suicide attempt. After a move across the country to Tucson, Ariz., Charlie tries to piece her life back together among a band of artists and musicians while dealing with the trauma of childhood abuse, self-harm and homelessness. A toxic relationship with a local musician and the reappearance of her friend from the psych ward...

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has now concluded, with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident taking home the Palme d’Or (see all jury winners here). While our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week––and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections––we’ve asked our contributors on the ground to share favorites.

See their picks below, and explore all of our coverage here.

Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)

1. Sirat (Oliver Laxe)

2. Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski)

3. The Last One For The Road (Francesco Sossai)

4. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

5. Resurrection (Bi Gan)

6. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)

7. Heads or Tails (Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis)

8. Lucky Lu (Lloyd Lee Choi)

9. Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa)

10. Mirrors No. 3 (Christian Petzold)

Read all of Leonardo’s reviews here.

Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)

1. Sirat (Oliver Laxe...

A fresh new debut from a filmmaker who has real talent. One of the best first films at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival is titled The Plague, an American indie thriller made by filmmaker Charlie Polinger. During the intro at its world premiere, actor Joel Edgerton (who also runs his own production company called Blue-Tongue Films - though they're not involved in this film) stated that he'd already seen few of Polinger's short films before reading the script for this & couldn't wait for him to finally make his mark with his first feature. That moment is here and, yes, he has definitely made his mark. Even after watching many other films over the course of the festival, this one still stands out, it still lingers in my mind and the score still haunts me. Even if the story about bullying is a bit obvious, and even if it never dips into...

Exclusive: Vertical has acquired North American rights to Griffin in Summer, the breakout debut feature of writer-director Nicholas Colia, for release in theaters this summer.

Starring Everett Blunck, an up-and-comer who can currently be seen at Cannes in Charlie Polinger’s The Plague, Griffin in Summer is a comedy that cleaned up in its world premiere at last year’s Tribeca Festival, winning Best U.S. Narrative Feature, Best U.S. Narrative Screenplay, and Special Jury Mention for New Narrative Director.

Also garnering Colia a 2025 nomination for the Indie Spirits’ Someone to Watch Award, the film follows Griffin Nafly (Blunck), who is the most ambitious playwright of his generation. He’s also 14 years old and living with his parents in a humdrum suburb. But when a handsome 25-year-old (Owen Teague) enters the picture, Griffin’s life — and his new play — take an unexpected turn.

“Having been lucky enough to travel...

“The Plague” filmmaker Charlie Polinger simply wanted to make a film that actually reflected his adolescent experiences.

“I see a lot of movies about 12 year old boys that are often either a little more ‘Goonies’-style biking around at night [that are about] this kind of carefree feeling or a little more bro-y hangout kind of movies. My sense of being 12 was it was more like [a] social anxiety hellscape,” Polinger told Executive Awards Editor Steve Pond at TheWrap’s Cannes Conversations in partnership with Brand Innovators.

“You see that [represented] more commonly, I think, in movies about women or about young girls, [movies] like ‘Carrie’ and ‘Raw’ and ‘Eighth Grade.’ You don’t see it as often in films about boys because there’s a certain vulnerability to [being] the object of terror or to [feel] insecurity in your body. There’s sort of a fear of that vulnerability being shown [when it is] centered around masculinity,” Polinger observed. “I...

High concept, low budget, straight-forward creative lens – that is how Emirati studio Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles-based genre label Spooky Pictures target movies under their partnership that is bringing one of its features to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.

No need to mince words either. “The creative mandate is: cool shit,” producer and Spooky co-founder Steven Schneider (Pet Sematary, Paranormal Activity, Insidious) tells THR. “We also always just look for things that are original and will surprise us,” adds producer and Spooky co-founder Roy Lee (It, The Ring, A Minecraft Movie). “The guiding light when we start out is that we want to make a movie that somebody thinks is their favorite movie of that year or of all time.”

The duo found a partner in crime in Image Nation CEO Ben Ross, bringing together what Schneider calls three “historical horror buffs” on a mission.

The idea of adolescence as a horror story is not new, but it’s given a splashy workout in Charlie Polinger’s queasily stylish debut feature, in which the swimming pools, lockers rooms and bunk-bed dormitories of a boys’ water polo camp are a puberty petrie dish livid with sinister bacteria. Drawn from experience and benefiting from some standout performances among its well-selected young cast, “The Plague” has a familiar coming-of-age narrative, but stranger, subtler undercurrents of creeping dismay at the men these boys will become when, at this formative age, cruelty chlorinates the water they swim in.

Sensitive, 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) comes to the Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp in the summer of 2003 as an outsider twice over. He’s not only joining after the second session has started, he’s also a new arrival to the area. And, as we understand from an early conversation with his...

The Plague, Charlie Polinger’s debut feature, premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar in 2025. Set in the sweltering summer of 2003, it follows 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) as he navigates the rigid pecking order of an elite water polo camp. Polinger (writer-director) and cinematographer Steve Breckon conjure an aquatic netherworld—slow-motion dives become rites of initiation—while Johan Lenox’s score underscores the psychic frictions beneath youthful bravado.

At the heart lies a fabricated malady: “the plague,” a supposed contagion marked by pimples that binds the group’s unwritten code. Touch Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), the outcast, and you must scrub yourself raw—an absurd ritual that mirrors witch-hunt dynamics in broader society. The film’s coming-of-age drama and psychological horror merge into a single current, carrying us from casual cruelty to visceral dread.

Blunck’s Ben oscillates between craving acceptance and recoiling at groupthink; Kayo Martin’s Jake wields observation like a scalpel,...

“I have two almost 4-year-olds, and I’m quite powerful and influential in certain circles, but not with two 4-year-olds,” says Joel Edgerton. “Kids run their own country, in a way.”

Edgerton’s been thinking a lot lately about those nascent years before entering adulthood thanks to his latest project, The Plague, which looks at the complicated and occasionally terrifying social dynamics of kids — specifically adolescent boys.

The feature debut of director Charlie Polinger, the film is set in the world of a competitive water polo summer camp, focusing primarily on the dynamic within a group of 12- and 13-year-old boys who have ostracized one camper because he has “the plague,” a nasty-looking case of eczema. One camper, Ben (Everett Blunck), struggles between his desire to help the outcast camper and his worry about incurring the wrath of the larger group. In the film, Edgerton plays the well-meaning if ineffective water polo coach.

The Space Program, a New York-based team of indie producers, describes itself as a collective. The way things work is that the three-person team collaborates on all projects — with one person taking lead and the others assuming supporting roles, depending on the film.

“We have been able to become a safety net for each other and for the films and the filmmakers,” explained Gus Deardoff, who runs the company along with Lizzie Shapiro and Lexi Tannenholtz. “It means there’s always someone available, which helps because filmmakers really need instantaneous contact with their producers at all times, and sometimes you get spread very thin. This way, we have several lines of defense.”

The company, which has worked on the feature debuts of Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”) and Emma Seligman (“Shiva Baby”), takes a particular interest in first-time filmmakers.

“We love working with people that we want to be able to grow with,...

While ostensibly adopting the perspective of a kind and sensitive 12-year-old boy going through the wringer at the hands of bullies, “The Plague” leaves a bitter, chlorine-y taste in the mouth. Set at a water polo camp, this competently realised debut feature from American director Charlie Polinger has its cake and eats it, gleefully aestheticizing the brutal violence and braggadocio cultivated in that environment. As alarming as that sounds, its relentless formal play seems a sign of cinematic enthusiasm rather than anything more sinister — the work of a filmmaker delighting in the aesthetic and dramatic possibilities granted him by his subject.

Continue reading ‘The Plague’ Review: Charlie Polinger’s Stylish, Bombastic Debut Feature With Joel Edgerton Has Little Emotion Under The Surface [Cannes] at The Playlist.

The American Pavilion is proud to announce a dynamic lineup of guest speakers, panels, and parties for the second week of its programming at Cannes 2025. Among the headliners are actor Lakeith Stanfield, and filmmakers Kevin Smith, Eugene Jarecki, Charlie Polinger, and Lucy McKendrick. This is in addition to already-announced special guests such as Spike Lee, Vicky Krieps, as well as many others in the days ahead — AmPav will have hosted more than 30 events before the festival wraps.

These events take place at the Roger Ebert Conference Center and are available to American Pavilion members.

“We’re honored so many talented filmmakers, actors, and industry leaders choose to share their stories at The American Pavilion,” said Julie Sisk, American Pavilion’s Founder and President.

See the full lineup of events below.

Saturday, May 17

11:00 Am

Industry In Focus: Build Your Audience, OWN Your Future

As the independent film landscape evolves, more...

The experience of engaging with a film can give you a reference for expressing a personal idea that you didn’t previously have the words for. This transference makes a moot point of all criticisms that could reasonably be leveled at the film. What do flaws matter, when you walk out of the cinema knowing how to finally say something you’ve been yearning to say? “The Plague” is full of ideas executed with varying degrees of resonance. It is not for everyone. But it could mean a lot to people like me.

In his debut feature, filmmaker Charlie Polinger plays with broad riffs on coming-of-age, body horror, and bullying genres before paring these themes back to reveal that two 12-year-old boys — and their contrasting approaches to being different — are really the heartfelt preoccupation of the film.

Set in the sealed world of a water polo training camp for boys...

Cannes is so brat.

On the heels of an electric Coachella performance and a series of roof-raising concerts in Brooklyn, Charli Xcx touched down last night at the Cannes Film Festival where she extended Brat summer, bringing some green to the Croisette courtesy of Magnum.

The well-known ice cream brand, which has long posted up for high-profile activations during the festival, once again took over Palais Stephanie. This year, Magnum dedicated Thursday to a day of “unapologetic indulgence” as a way to celebrate the brand’s offerings and inspire “a new generation of pleasure seekers to ‘own the moment’ their way,” per official intel.

Charli Xcx at the Magnum party wearing Vivienne Westwood archive in a reported homage to a 1995 runway moment that featured a model eating a Magnum ice cream bar.

Charli Xcx owned her moment by causing a stir at the Magnum Cannes beach party where she jumped...

The Plague, a world premiere today in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, may be fiction, but it brought back vivid, not-so-pleasant memories of my days in elementary school and at the Catalina Island Boys Camp, where every 12-year-old in my cabin nicknamed the kid we labeled a chronic liar and outcast as Skag. We didn’t believe this extremely awkward kid about anything including that his father had won four Oscars, as he kept bragging, but the fact is after I got home I discovered it was true. If only we had cell phones and IMDb in those days, Skag might not have become the target of our obsessive bullying.

And then in the fifth grade, my entire class zeroed in on one poor girl named Karen who we nicknamed Ledbutt. We all secretly even cut her photo out of our copy of the class photo,...

Charlie Polinger opens his thrilling and uneasy directorial debut feature The Plague with an arresting sequence that quickly establishes the haunting undertones of this adolescent psychological thriller. The ambient, muffled sound of sloshing water is set against a shot of the bottom of a pool. One by one, swimmers drop into the massive indoor basin. Their spindly legs move awkwardly as they try to get in sync. It’s 2003, and these are the middle-school-aged attendees of the Tom Lerner Water Polo camp. From this angle, Polinger and his cinematographer Steven Breckon make these kids look like phantasmic figures.

An eerie sense of unreality runs through The Plague, which premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Working from a screenplay he also wrote, Polinger uses horror conventions to tease out the psychic terror and intimidation of pre-teen social codes. In the age of renewed questions about and considerations of the manosphere,...

Arab cinema and its representatives are out in full force — and in the spotlight — on the Croisette this year, where the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday.

Case in point: Qatar’s film industry is gearing up for what insiders say will be its biggest-ever presence on the Croisette. The timing seems fitting given that the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) will, during the fest, bestow its sixth Arab Cinema Personality of the Year Award onto Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO of Qatar’s Doha Film Institute, for her “noteworthy efforts to advance the Qatari, Arab, and global film industries.”

Egypt also has reason to celebrate. It returns to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard lineup for the first time in nine years, with its “central role in regional production and distribution” as “the Arab world’s largest filmmaking hub” getting the spotlight in a...

Buyers are finally wise to the fact that Cannes is driving the Oscar race and even the specialized box office. Everyone wants to find the next “Anora,” “The Substance,” “Emilia Perez,” or “Anatomy of a Fall.” And more buyers like Mubi, Metrograph, Sideshow, and other upstarts have emerged to take on the likes of Neon and A24, who come to Cannes armed with several titles already set to debut.

Below, we’ve identified 13 movies looking for homes that could be the next awards breakout, including new films from Lynne Ramsay and Richard Linklater and the debuts of Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson.

All titles presented alphabetically.

“The Chronology of Water” (Un Certain Regard)

Director: Kristen Stewart

Stars: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge

Buzz: Even if it’s in a sidebar for a first-time director, Kristen Stewart’s debut should be a hot ticket with a lot of...

Kristen Stewart, TheWrap’s Cannes magazine cover star, will join us for a live conversation on her daring directorial debut “The Chronology of Water” in TheWrap’s Cannes Conversations series, presented in partnership with Brand Innovators at the Brand Innovators Salon D’Affaires pop-up inside the Armani Caffé on the Croisette.

Taking place May 16–18, the program spotlights top filmmakers, changemakers and creative visionaries at the 77th Cannes Film Festival — in exclusive conversations with TheWrap’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Sharon Waxman and Awards Executive Editor Steve Pond.

Acclaimed actor and first-time feature director Kristen Stewart will join the conversation lineup alongside “Splitsville” filmmakers and stars Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin and producer Emily Korteweg; “The Plague” director and writer Charlie Polinger; and Matthias Schweighöfer, star of “Amrum.” Both “Splitsville” and “Amrum” screen in the Premiere section, while “The Plague” is featured in Un Certain Regard.

Other industry speakers will include Dr.

Joel Edgerton can be seen in the upcoming Train Dreams, which screened at Sundance a few months ago, and Netflix shelled out a massive $16 million for the rights to this elegant slice of early twentieth-century Americana, which could be an awards contender if given the proper build-up. Our Chris Bumbray raved about the film, saying in his review, “It’s the kind of movie that stays with you long after you see it and hopefully will get the kind of build-up it deserves, as it will likely rank among the best films of the year when all is said and done.”

Next, Edgerton has signed on to star in a black comedy with Toni Collette titled Fangs. According to Variety, the film is described as a “thrilling black comedy about privilege, power, and dangerous fantasies.” The film will be helmed by first-time Australian director Lucy McKendrick. McKendrick will also be...

Golden Globe nominee Joel Edgerton and Golden Globe winner Toni Collette are teaming up for the directorial debut of fellow Australian Lucy McKendrick.

“Fangs” — billed as a “thrilling black comedy about privilege, power, and dangerous fantasies” — is being sold by Cornerstone, which is handling international rights and is co-repping for the U.S. with CAA Media Finance.

The film follows Teddy (McKendrick), the daughter of a private prison mogul, who becomes obsessed with a charismatic inmate, Fangs (Edgerton). Consumed with desire for the self-proclaimed ‘psychopath,’ Teddy risks everything as her life spirals spectacularly out of control.

“Fangs” is produced by Rebecca Yeldham through Ahimsa Films together with Aggregate Films’ Michael Costigan, Charlie Polinger (“The Plague”), and Truant Pictures’ Toby Nalbandian (“Turn Me On”). The film, which is made with major production investment from Screen Australia, will commence production in Sydney in August.

“It’s rare to read a script as entertaining,...

Late Night with the Deviland Barbarian stars David Dastmalchian and Georgina Campbell are taking the lead of The Shepherd. It's an exciting casting announcement for genre fans, given that Late Night with the Devil and Barbarian are considered to be among the best horror movies of recent years.

Per Variety, Campbell and Dastmalchian will be starring in a new horror film, The Shepherd, set to launch at Cannes. The Shepherd is directed by John Hyams from a screenplay by Alexander Gustaveson, and is set to follow a young woman in the midst of labor who just so happens to also be on the run from the abuse that has engulfed her night. While trying to escape in the dead of night in Nevada, her efforts are thrown into chaos by the appearance of a mysterious stranger who harbors an ominous threat of their own.

The Shepherd is being produced under...

The stars of horror hits “Late Night With the Devil” and “Barbarian” are uniting to take another potentially hair-raising step into the genre world.

“The Shepherd” is set to team David Dastmalchian and Georgina Campbell. The horror-thriller comes from Spooky Pictures — Image Nation (also behind “Late Night With the Devil”), with Anton launching sales in Cannes.

The film is being directed by John Hyams and written by Alexander Gustaveson. Anton is handling worldwide rights and co-repping North American rights with UTA Independent Film Group and Cinetic.

Set in the desolate Nevada night, “The Shepherd” follows a young woman in labor fleeing an abusive past who has her escape hijacked by a mysterious stranger hiding an ominous threat in the back of her car.

Reuniting the producers behind the box-office hit “Late Night with the Devil,” “The Shepherd” is produced under the Spooky Pictures – Image Nation partnership with Steven Schneider and...

Charlie Polinger’s debut feature “The Plague,” which will have its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, will be launched to buyers at the Cannes Film Market with UTA Independent Film Group and Cinetic co-selling the U.S. rights and AGC Intl. handling the rest of the world.

The film, written and directed by Polinger, stars Joel Edgerton and an ensemble of young newcomers including Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin and Kenny Rasmussen.

“The Plague” is the story of an anxious 12-year-old navigating the savage social order at an all-boys water polo summer camp. He is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague,” but as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real.

The film is produced by Spooky Pictures, Hellcat, The Space Program, Five Henrys Productions and Image Nation. It is produced by Lizzie Shapiro,...

The full list of films that will be screening at the 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival has been released. The line-up was announced this morning by the Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch at a press conference in Paris. The Hollywood Reporter has shared the program listing for this year’s event. While there are a number of anticipated high-profile titles, a bevy of auteurs will be showcasing their latest, including Kelly Reichardt, who will be returning to the competition with The Mastermind. The film is an art-heist drama and stars Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, which takes place during the Vietnam War.

Joachim Trier, the Norwegian filmmaker who made a splash in 2021 with The Worst Person of the World, returns with the new film Sentimental Value, which features Renate Reinsve. Julia Ducournau, the director of the surreal film, Titane, which got her a Palme d’Or...

The guessing game around which films could make the lineup for the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13—24, came to an end this morning at a press conference in Paris by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch. If you tapped the latest works by Ari Aster (Eddington), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind), Richard Linklater (Nouvelle Vague), Wes anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), and the Dardenne brothers (Young Mothers) to make the cut, then you were correct.

Neon, which is on a five-year winning streak of Palme d’Or winners, two of which went on to win best picture at the Oscars (Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Sean Baker’s Anora), will try to make it a sixth with, for now, either of the two films it already has in its stable: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Julie Ducournau’s Alpha.

Absent from the...

Among the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival’s 78th edition are some big names from Hollywood and global cinema. We already knew that Tom Cruise will light the fuse on Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on May 14 out of competition, while there was plenty of speculation that Scarlett Johansson would have a pair of movies on the Croisette. The latter has now been confirmed with Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great set for Un Certain Regard, and her acting reteam with Wes Anderson in his latest, The Phoenician Scheme, in Competition. Also confirmed is Ari Aster’s Eddington with Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone.

Many more stars are potentially in store now that the bulk of the official selection has been revealed. Not everyone is confirmed to attend the Riviera shindig, but here’s a look at some of the possibilities.

Cannes...

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.

Handing in their almost finished homework, we expect an extra of titles to be added to the sixteen titles that were unveiled today. The upcoming Un Certain Regard programme has eight feature debuts with notables in Harris Dickinson (Urchin) and Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) making the move behind the camera. Also in the newbie club we find the highly anticipated films by Morad Mostafa in Aisha Can’t Fly Away and Diego Céspedes‘ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. Charlie Polinger‘s The Plague, Akinola Davies Jr.‘s My Father’s Shadow (a Mubi pick-up), Zuzana Kirchnerová‘s Karavan and Harry Lighton’s Pillion – the A24 Kinky Queer Romance film starring Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling are also up for the Camera d’Or prize.…...

New films from Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater and the Dardenne brothers will premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Cannes organizers announced at a press conference in Paris on Thursday.

Anderson will be back in Cannes with “The Phoenician Scheme,” which premiered a baffling trailer at CinemaCon last week. Linklater is heading to France with a bold movie, “Nouvelle Vague,” which tackles the sacred ground of Jean-Luc Godard and the filming of “Breathless” in the 1960s. The Dardenne brothers have “Young Mothers,” which gives them a chance to become the first filmmakers to win the Palme d’Or three times.

Actors in the festival making their directorial debuts include Scarlett Johansson, who is in Un Certain Regard with “Eleanor the Great,” starring Joan Squibb; and Harris Dickinson, the star of the Palme d’Or winner “The Triangle of Sadness,” with “Urchin.”

The main competition will include a number of...

The Official Selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition. See full lists below.

Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Wes Anderson, who brings his latest flick The Phoenician Scheme; Richard Linklater will launch his Paris-shot Nouvelle Vague; Jochim Trier debuts his latest feature Sentimental Value; and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns with Alpha.

Cannes will open this year with Leave One Day by first-time French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin. Thierry Frémaux said during his presser this morning that it was the first time a debut film has been selected to open the festival. Also hitting the Croisette for the first time is horror auteur Ari Aster, who returns to feature filmmaking with his buzzy A24 feature Eddington.

Related: Thierry Frémaux Talks ‘Mission: Impossible’; Star Presence; Hollywood Introspection & Oscar Track Record

Elsewhere, American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt will...

Ahead of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 13 to 24, the lineup has now been unveiled. Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have revealed the slate this morning.

Highlights include Ari Aster’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Joachim Trier’s Sentimal Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, Carla Simon’s Romeria, and more. In other sections we have Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée, the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson, Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville, Sebastián Lelio’s The Wave, Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, and more.

See below.

In Competition

After (Oliver Laxe)

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

The Eagles of the Republic (Tarik Saleh)

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Dossier 137 (Dominik Moll...

Exclusive: Lucy Punch (Amandaland) has been cast as a series regular in AMC and AMC+’s untitled Jonathan Glatzer Silicon Valley drama headlined by Billy Magnussen. Also added as a series regular is Everett Blunck.

The series, produced by AMC Studios, is set within the delusion bubble of Silicon Valley. The story follows an ethically compromised tech CEO (Magnussen) who is outrunning reputational damage as he tries to rescue his company from the brink of failure by any means necessary. Dragged into his chaos are his family, his kid’s elite prep school, an assortment of Sv power players and his psychiatrist (Sarah Goldberg).

Punch will play tech CEO’s wife who is having a retaliatory affair after her own husband’s infidelity. Blunck will play a high school student who moves to Silicon Valley to stay with his mom and stepdad.

In addition to Magnussen and Goldberg, they join fellow series regulars Meaghan Rath,...

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If you loved Sydney Sweeney’s performances in dark and moody films like Immaculate and Nocturne. Then you might be in luck as according to Deadline, Sweeney is reportedly in talks to star in The Masque of the Red Death, which is based on the story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe.

The short story revolves around a prince who locks himself into his abbey to save himself from a dangerous plague known as the Red Death. While this may be the inspiration for the upcoming film, the exact plot for the Polinger film is still being kept under wraps.

A24 and Picturestart are teaming up for the film, with Charlie Polinger taking on writing and directing duties. Polinger will also be the film’s executive producer alongside Lucy McKendrick.

Polinger is currently working on The Plague,...

"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all..."

The work of Edgar Allan Poe has been adapted for the big and small screen numerous times over the years, with several of the legendary writer's stories influencing Mike Flanagan's recent retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher.

The acclaimed Netflix miniseries put its own unique spin on The Masque of the Red Death, and we're now hearing that a feature adaptation is in the works. Deadline reports that A24 and Picturehouse are developing the project, with Charlie Polinger set to write and direct.

This take on the short story is described as "wildly revisionist and darkly comedic." Sydney Sweeney is in talks to play the lead role. No details on her character were disclosed, but we assume it'll be a gender-switched take on Prince Prospero.

First published in 1842, The Masque of the Red...