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After can­cel­ing its last edi­tion due to the pan­dem­ic, Direc­tors’ Fort­night, a sec­tion run­ning along­side the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, will be back with a styl­ish and eclec­tic inter­na­tion­al line­up, includ­ing Joan­na Hogg’s high­ly antic­i­pat­ed ​“The Sou­venir Part II,” Clio Barnard’s ​“Ali & Ava,” Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s Rwan­da-set sci-fi film ​“Nep­tune Frost,” and Alice Rohrwach­er, Pietro Mar­cel­lo and Francesco Munzi’s ​“Futu­ra.”

The high­light of this edi­tion will like­ly be the world pre­mière of ​“The Sou­venir Part II” which will mark the first pres­ence of Hogg, an acclaimed British writer-direc­tor, at Cannes. The romance-dra­ma is head­lined by Til­da Swin­ton – who will also be in Cannes for ​“The French Dis­patch” and ​“Memo­ria” com­pet­ing in the festival’s Offi­cial Selec­tion –, as well as Richard Ayoade, Char­lie Heaton and Har­ris Dick­in­son. Exec­u­tive pro­duced by Mar­tin Scors­ese, the film revolves around a stu­dent who begins to find her voice as an artist while nav­i­gat­ing a tur­bu­lent courtship with a charm­ing but untrust­wor­thy man. 

Direc­tors Fort­night will also host the French pre­mière of ​“The Sou­venir” which will be the strand’s only Spe­cial Screen­ing title. The film will have its the­atri­cal release in France lat­er this year. It pre­vi­ous­ly world pre­miered at Sun­dance and played at the Berlinale.

Oth­er antic­i­pat­ed films set to unspool at Direc­tors’ Fort­night include ​“Ali & Ava,” the fourth fea­ture from Barnard, anoth­er British writer-direc­tor. The film is a con­tem­po­rary love sto­ry head­lined by Adeel Akhtar (“Four Lions”) and Claire Rush­brook (“Secrets & Lies”); ​“Futu­ra,” a doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by a trio of high-pro­file Ita­lo helmers – Rohrwach­er, Mar­cel­lo and Munz — and por­tray­ing how Italy’s ado­les­cents look at the future.

The sec­tion will kick off with ​“Between Two Worlds,” Emmanuel Carrère’s dra­ma head­lined by Juli­ette Binoche and based on the best­seller ​“Le Quai de Ouistre­ham.” Binoche stars as well-known author who decides to write a book on job inse­cu­ri­ty and sets off to expe­ri­ence it firsthand.

Direc­tors’ Fort­night is head­ed by Pao­lo Moret­ti, who took over as artis­tic direc­tor in 2019, suc­ceed­ing Edouard Wain­trop. The section’s lead­er­ship is over­seen by the SRF, the French Film Direc­tors Guild, whose mem­bers include Celine Sci­amma, Jacques Audi­ard and Rebec­ca Zlotowski.

The 53^rd edi­tion of the strand will pay trib­ute to Fred­er­ick Wise­man, the revered Amer­i­can doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er and pro­duc­er of ​“Ex Lib­ris: The New York Pub­lic Library,” ​“Box­ing Gym” and ​“Hos­pi­tal.” Wise­man will be award­ed the Car­rosse d’Or on July 7, dur­ing the Direc­tors’ Fort­night open­ing cer­e­mo­ny. Past recip­i­ents include John Car­pen­ter and Mar­tin Scorsese.

Direc­tors’ Fort­night is a non-com­pet­i­tive sec­tion and is open to the pub­lic through a sys­tem of sea­son tick­ets and indi­vid­ual screen­ing tick­ets. This year, due to the pan­dem­ic, all Fort­night screen­ings will require online book­ing, as with the Offi­cial Selec­tion of the Cannes Film Festivals.

The sec­tion will also be orga­niz­ing reruns of the selec­tion fol­low­ing the fes­ti­val, in Paris, Mar­seille and Bruxelles.

The 53^rd edi­tion of Direc­tors’ Fort­night will be held in Cannes from July 7 – 17.

DIREC­TORS FORT­NIGHT 2021 LINE­UP:
FEA­TURE FILMS:

“A Chiara,” Jonas Carpig­nano
​“A Night of Know­ing Nor­thing,” Pay­al Kapa­dia
​“Ali & Ava,” Clio Barnard
​“Clara Sola,” Nathalie Álvarez Mesen
​“A Brighter Tomor­row,” Yas­sine Qnia
​“The Tsug­ua Diaries,” Miguel Gomes, Mau­reen Fazen­deiro
​“The Employ­er and the Employ­ee,” Manuel Nieto Zas
​“The Braves,” Anaïs Volpé
​“Europa,” Haider Rashid
​“Furu­ta,” Alice Rohrwach­er, Pietro Mar­cel­lo, Francesco Mun­zi
​“Inte­grald­ed,” Radu Muntean
​“Hit the Road,” Panah Panahi
​“Mag­net­ic Beats,” Vin­cent Maël Car­dona
​“The Hill where Lioness­es Roar,” Luà­na Bajra­mi
​“Medusa,” Ani­ta Rocha da Sil­veira
​“Our Men,” Rachel Lang (clos­ing film)
​“Muri­na,” Antone­ta Ala­mat Kusi­janović
​“Nep­tune Frost,” Saul Williams, Anisia Uzey­man
​“Between Two Worlds,” Emmanuel Car­rère (clos­ing film)
​“The Tale of King Crab,” Alessio Rigo de Righi, Mat­teo Zop­pis
​“Frag­ments,” Jean-Gabriel Péri­ot
​“The Sou­venir Part II,” Joan­na Hogg
​“Rip­ples of Life,” Shu­jun Wei
​“The Sea Ahead,” Ely Dagher

SPE­CIAL SCREENING: 

“The Sou­venir,” Joan­na Hogg