The festival has selected both films to be part of this year’s Cannes on the Beach program, the free-access, open-air cinema screenings held every night on the Macé beach facing the Majestic Hotel. Held back from release until now, Tom Medina and The Summit of the Gods will have their world premieres in the sand. Both Gatlif and Imbert will present their movies in Cannes.

Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen will also make the trip to the Macé beach to present an open-air screening of Lovers Rock. Part of his Small Axe series of films for the BBC, Lovers Rock was also part of the Cannes 2020 Official Selection. Lovers Rock screened at the New York, London and Rome Film Festivals before going out on TV and online via Amazon Prime.

Action tentpole F9, which will have an out-of-competition red carpet screening in Cannes this year, will also get a beach slot, unspooling for the public on Monday, July 12.

Other highlights of the 2021 Cannes on the Beach program include Oliver Stone’s director’s cut of his 1991 political thriller JFK and David Byrne’s American Utopia, the film of the Talking Heads frontman’s 2019 Broadway show, directed by this year’s Cannes jury president Spike Lee.

Stone, in Cannes to screen his documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, will present the JFK beach screening.

The 2021 Cannes Film Festival runs July 6-17