Cannes 2024

A lovingly reverential portrait of the most famous puppeteer of all time, Jim Henson, creator of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and other fantastical worlds, Howard's film offers eye-opening insights into Henson’s background, delivers anecdotes which will be new to many, and all the time propels this reviewer on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

The 2024 L’Œil d’or jury comprising Nicolas Philibert, Dyana Gaye, Elise Jalladeau, Francis Legault and Mina Kavani decided to award two films ex aequo. These were Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by Raoul Peck in Special Screenings and Les Filles du Nil by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir in Critics Week.

Norwegian Lene Berg is visited by the ghost of her long-dead father, the renowned director Arnljot Berg who, in 1975, was charged with the murder of his third wife. Now, the ghost demands his daughter must start asking the right questions. But what are the right questions? “The perfect investor [in this film] is the investor who believes in art first,” says producer Ellen Ugelstad. “Lene Berg is sculpting a narrative from all aspects of the cinematic range. She is a bold, unwavering artist, who soars past boundaries and defines new territory in her films.”

Chile will be participating for the fourth time at Cannes Docs when four projects at advanced stage and covering themes such as the migration crisis, diversity and climate change, will be presented. Meanwhile, a wider delegation of Chilean doc producers will attend the Marché du Film to promote and present their talent and content to the global documentary community.

“The film's reflective narrative about Angelica's love for her [former] high school teacher, a French woman in her forties named Miss S, is both captivating and highly relatable,” says producer Brynhildur Þórarinsdóttir of her Swedish Cannes Docs project. “At its core, the film delves into desire as a potent force, encapsulating the essence of yearning and the existential solitude that accompanies it.”

In her 40-minute doc, Elena López Riera talks to mature women from Southern Spain, some as old as 103, about their experience of love (or otherwise), marriage and sex. All the time López Riera acknowledges that she will never be one of the numerous brides we see on screen culled from archive, nor will she be part of the “inheritance” process of child-rearing. The film is dedicated to her mother, with whom she has hitherto never been able to talk intimately, and whose image as a young bride herself we see continuously on screen.

Scottish Documentary Institute Director Flore Cosquer talks to Business Doc Europe ahead of the May 18 “tartan” pitch of four new projects at Cannes Docs. “For me, the fact that we have a lot of co-production is really a testament to the dynamism of Scotland,” Conquer says of the increasing trend for Scottish directors and producers like those headed to Cannes to look for international support.

David Teboul talks to BDE about his new doc that takes on one of the titans of French cinema. “The idea of the film started with this incredible material,” the director says. “I had the trust of [Truffaut’s daughters] Eva and Laura Truffaut so I had access to personal unpublished archives, interviews, letters and photos…I was able to make an intimate portrait…from the point of view of Truffaut. This has never been done before.”

Each year, Cannes Docs partners with a number of institutions and organizations from different parts of the world to showcase curated selections of docs-in-progress at finalization stage, aiming to hit the circuit within a few weeks or months. These showcases of docs-in-progress are primarily designed for decision makers looking for fresh new titles, in particular festival programmers and sales agents.

Frontline is one of two Ukrainian projects being pitched at Cannes Docs 2024 on May 18. It is directed by Alisa Kovalenko who, after the full-scale Russian invasion, went to fight on the Eastern front, leaving her four-year-old son behind. “I felt that I cannot make cinema [anymore], and I didn't see any sense in it. I died for myself as a director,” she tells BDE. “But while I was on the frontline, I also felt that it's important to save memories for my son because I didn't know when or if I will see him again.”