The 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is set to open with Leos Carax’s anticipated romantic musical film “Annette” with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard on July 7. The movie will also play in competition.

“Annette” will be released simultaneously in theaters in France by UGC. Amazon Studios, which has North American rights to the film, will release it in late summer in theaters and on Amazon Prime Video. “Annette” marks Carax’s English-language debut. “Annette’s” original screenplay, original songs and score were written and composed by Ron Mael and Russell Mael of the innovative rock band Sparks.

Set in contemporary Los Angeles, the film stars Driver as Henry, a stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor who falls in love with Ann (Cotillard), a world-renowned opera singer. Under the spotlight, they form a passionate and glamorous couple. With the birth of their first child, Annette, a mysterious little girl with an exceptional destiny, their lives are turned upside down. Simon Helberg also stars.

“Annette” is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film produced by Charles Gillibert (CG Cinéma International), Paul-Dominique Vacharasinthu (Tribus P. Films) and Driver, in association with Amazon Studios, Arte and Canal Plus.

Described as “visionary and enigmatic” by the festival, Carax has directed several cult movies over his long career, notably Pola X in 1999 and “Holy Motors” in 2012, both of which competed at Cannes. The difficult financing of Carax’s 1990 film “Les Amants du Pont Neuf” is a thing of legend in French cinema history. Eventually completed, it played the 1991 Cannes festival in an out of competition slot.

“Every Leos Carax film is an event. And this one delivers on its promises! Annette is the gift that lovers of cinema, music and culture were hoping for, one that we have been yearning for during the past year,” said Pierre Lescure, Cannes Film Festival president.

“We couldn’t have dreamed of a more beautiful reunion with cinema and the silver screen, in the Palais des festivals where films come to assert their splendor,” said Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ chief. “Carax’s cinema is an expression of these powerful gestures, these mysterious alchemies that makes the secret of cinema’s modernity and eternity,” added Fremaux.

The festival will this year not be held in its usual mid-May slot. Instead, it will run July 6-17. It was previously announced that American director Spike Lee will be president of the jury that awards the festival’s major prizes.

Sources