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- Animated opener breaks new ground at Critics’ Week
- Closing selection explores fragile youth and survival
- How the lineup was built and what it represents
- Notable themes and geographic reach
- Films to watch: synopses and creative notes
- Awards, jury and festival dates
- Official lineup: competition and special screenings
The 65th Semaine de la Critique at Cannes opens with a bold choice: an animated debut takes the opening night slot. Festival programmers are signaling a wider embrace of form and voice as a new crop of filmmakers arrive on the Croisette.
Animated opener breaks new ground at Critics’ Week
Phuong Mai Nguyen’s first feature, In Waves, will inaugurate Critics’ Week. It is the first animated film to open this Cannes sidebar dedicated to emerging directors.
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Adapted from AJ Dungo’s graphic memoir, the film was produced by Silex Films with co-producers Anonymous Content, France 3 Cinema and Panique!. The voice cast includes Will Sharpe and Stéphanie Hsu.
Cannons of praise from the section’s curator point to the film’s emotional core. At its heart is a love story between a skater and a surfer, tested by illness. The movie is set against a pastel California sky, blending visual lyricism with intimate melodrama.
Closing selection explores fragile youth and survival
The Critics’ Week closing film is Félix de Givry’s Adieu monde cruel. The drama stars Milo Machado-Graner and Jane Beever.
The story follows a teenager coping with the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt. The film mixes careful staging with raw, impulsive emotion as it tracks a 14-year-old’s fragile recovery.
How the lineup was built and what it represents
Curated by Ava Cahen, this year’s selection was chosen from more than a thousand feature submissions and thousands of shorts. The numbers are striking: roughly 1,050 features and 2,400 shorts were considered.
The official slate includes 11 feature films and 13 shorts. Seven feature entries compete for awards. Four additional titles appear as special screenings.
Cahen framed the collection as urgent and alive. Many films interrogate societal strains while refusing fatalism. Across borders, the selections find sparks of hope amid difficult realities.
Notable themes and geographic reach
This Critics’ Week emphasizes diversity of place and perspective. The lineup spans Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
- Social upheaval and identity recur in several films.
- Family ties, adolescence and memory surface as central motifs.
- Documentary form and fiction mingle to portray marginalized lives.
Two national firsts stand out. Kosovo and Yemen make their Critics’ Week debuts with Blerta Basholli’s Dua and Sara Ishaq’s Al Mahatta, respectively.
Films to watch: synopses and creative notes
Several titles have already drawn attention from programmers and critics.
- A Girl Unknown (Zou Jing) — A portrait of a young Chinese woman, played by Li Gengxi. The film traces identity across childhood and adolescence, and explores the fate of abandoned girls from the 1980s to the 2000s.
- Six Months in the Pink Building (Bruno Santamaría Razo) — A Mexican drama set in 1996. The plot centers on a boy whose father is diagnosed with HIV. The picture evokes home-movie textures and warm palettes.
- Tin Castle (Alexander Murphy) — A documentary about an extended Irish Traveller family living in a trailer. The film contrasts the freedom of open fields with pressures from mainstream society.
Other entries promise distinctive approaches to tone and form. Some directors employ intimate staging, while others use observational documentary methods.
Awards, jury and festival dates
The Critics’ Week jury will hand out three main prizes:
- The Sony Discovery Prize for short film
- The Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award
- The AMI Paris Grand Prize
Blerta Basholli, whose short film Hive earned Sundance accolades in 2021, returns to the spotlight with a feature in competition.
The 65th Critics’ Week runs from May 13 to May 21.
Official lineup: competition and special screenings
The slate mixes world premieres and notable premieres from established and first-time filmmakers.
Competition titles
- Al Mahatta (The Station) — Sara Ishaq
- Dua — Blerta Basholli
- La Gradiva — Marine Atlan
- Wu ming nü hai (A Girl Unknown) — Zou Jing
- Six Months in the Pink Building — Bruno Santamaría Razo
- Tin Castle — Alexander Murphy
- Viva (Alive) — Aina Clotet
Special screenings
- Adieu monde cruel — Félix de Givry (closing film)
- In Waves — Phuong Mai Nguyen (opening film)
- La Frappe (Stonewall) — Julien Gaspar-Oliveri
- Du Fioul dans les artères (Flesh and Fuel) — Pierre Le Gall
