The Cannes Film Festival is really a festival of festivals. There’s the main competition, whose lineup was announced last week, plus the Un Certain Regard sidebar for “original and different” work from around the world. In 1969, the French Directors Guild added the Directors’ Fortnight (also known as Quinzaine des Réalisateurs). And finally there’s the Critics’ Week (a.k.a. La Semaine de la Critique), founded in 1962 by a group of French journalists, which focuses on first and second films from up-and-coming directors. Over the years, the Critics’ Week sidebar has helped discover filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai, Leos Carax, Andrea Arnold, Bernardo Bertolucci, Chris Marker, and Guillermo del Toro.
Each year’s Critics’ Week lineup features only seven competition films, plus opening, closing, and special screenings. You’ll find the full 2014 roster below; notable selections include Breathe, the second film from actress Melanie Laurent, and It Follows, the second film from David Robert Mitchell, the director of the excellent coming-of-age movie The Myth Of The American Sleepover. When Animals Dream, a Danish “coming-of-age werewolf romance” has already been acquired for U.S. distribution by Radius-TWC. The 2014 Cannes Critics’ Week runs May 15 to 23.
2014 Cannes Critics’ Week Lineup
Opening Film
Making Love, directed by Djinn Carrenard. Second film; France.
Special Screenings
Breathe, directed by Melanie Laurent. Second film; France.
The Kindergarten Teacher, directed by Nadav Lapid. Second film; Israel.
Competition
Darker Than Midnight, directed by Sebastiano Riso. First film; Italy.
Gente de bien, directed by Franco Lolli. First film; Colombia.
Hope, directed by Boris Lojkine. Second film; France.
It Follows, directed by David Robert Mitchell. Second film; U.S.
Self Made, directed by Shira Geffen. Second film; Israel.
The Tribe, directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy. First film; Ukraine.
When Animals Dream, directed by Jonas Alexander Arnby. First film; Denmark.
Closing Film
Hippocrate, directed by Thomas Lilti. Second film; France.