Fortnight to Include Michel Gondry, Hong Sang-soo Films

Movies from ‘Good Time’ cinematographer Sean Price Williams and ‘The Prayer’ director Cédric Kahn play in this year’s lineup.

2023 Directors' Fortnight Poster — 2023 Directors’ Fortnight Poster DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar has unveiled its 2023 lineup, which will feature new films from arthouse favorites Hong Sang-soo, Michel Gondry and Cédric, Kahn as well as broad selection from up-and-coming international directors.

Gondry’s French-language comedy The Book of Solutions, the first film in 7 years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep director, is a Fortnight highlight this year.

Star Pierre Niney (Franz and Yves Saint Laurent) plays the lead as a director dealing with a creative block. The project was hot seller for Kinology at the Cannes market last year.

Hong Sangsoo will close this year’s Fortnight section with In Our Day, a drama starring Kim Minhee as a woman of 40 temporarily living at the home of a friend and Ki Joobong as a 70-something man living alone. Both receive visitors, eat noodles, and talk. Cats are involved. Sounds like classic Hong, who will be making his Directors’ Fortnight debut this year.

The Goldman Case, the latest from French actor-director Cédric Kahn, will open the selection. The period drama focused on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman, who was convicted of several armed robberies before being mysteriously murdered.

Trio of U.S. Indies

A trio of U.S. indie filmmakers made the Directors’ Fortnight including Sean Price Williams, known for his cinematography on the Safdie Brothers’Good Time, will screen his feature debut The Sweet East;

Joanna Arnow’s The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, the portrait of a woman in a low-level corporate job with a long-term casual BDSM relationship;

Riddle Of Fire, the debut feature from L.A.-based director Weston Razooli, who first attracted attention with such shorts as Anaxia and Jolly Boy Friday.

Asian entries include A Song Sung Blue, a Chinese coming-of-age tale from first-timer Geng Zihan; Agra, a multi-generational drama from Indian filmmaker Kanu Behl (Butterfly (Titli)); Vietnamese title The Yellow Cocoon Shell, the debut feature from director Pham Thien An; and Pakistani horror film In Flames from Canadian-Pakistani filmmaker Zarrar Kahn.

Manoel de Oliveira Tribute

There will be special screening of late Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s 1993 drama Abraham’s Valley to mark the film’s 30th anniversary of its original Directors’ Fortnight debut.

Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé will receive the section’s Carrosse d’Or honorary award.

Quinzaine des Cinéastes

The Directors’ Fortnight has new French name, Quinzaine des Cinéastes, changed from the male-gender-specific Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, to make the section gender-inclusive.

The 55th Directors’ Fortnight runs May 17–26.

The 2023 Directors’ Fortnight lineup below.

Directors’ Fortnight 2023

The Goldman Case, Cédric Kahn (opening film)

Abraham’s Valley, Manoel de Oliveira (special screening)

Agra, Kanu Behl

The Other Laurens, Claude Schmitz

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Thien An Pham

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, Elene Naveriani

Grace, Ilya Povolotsky

She Is Conann, Bertrand Mandico

Creatura, Elena Martín Gimeno