2021 Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns to the Cannes Film Festival this year, but not in competition. Instead, Variety reports that she’ll be on the Croisette shopping her next project, entitled “Alpha,” with FilmNation and Charades handling its sales.

READ MORE: Cannes Critic Weeks Announces 2024 Line-Up

There’s no plot details yet for “Alpha,” but the film stars Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim, two actors who, like Ducournau, are modern Cannes legends in their own right.  

Continue reading ‘Alpha’: ‘Titane’ Director Julia Docournau’s Next Film To Hit Cannes Market, Stars Tahar Rahim & Golshifteh Farahani at The Playlist.

CANNES – She’s won an Academy Award and dealt with toxic, misogynist fans over the $1 billion success of “Ms. Marvel.” Still, we’re not 100% sure Brie Larson knew what she was getting into when she was asked to join the Cannes Film Festival Jury. During a press conference introducing the jury to the global press corps, Larson said she was surprised to have been asked and added, “I have never been here before so to be asked was such an honor.” About 10 minutes later, Larson was stumped by a question, not from an international journalist, but a familiar face from Variety, no less.

Continue reading Brie Larson Has An Unexpected Cannes Press Conference Moment at The Playlist.

The 76th Festival de Cannes already had a jury president in two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlünd. It now has eight more members to fill out its jury. Two of those members just happen to be Oscar winner Brie Larson and Emmy and BAFTA Award nominee Paul Dano.

READ MORE: Cannes 2023: Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” joins new films from Catherine Corsini and more

The other members of the jury include another Palme d’Or winner, “Titane” director Julia Ducournau, “Wild Tales” Oscar nominee Damián Szifrón noted French actor Denis Menochet, BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, and novelist and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi.

Continue reading Brie Larson & Paul Dano Join Ruben Ostlünd On The 2023 Cannes Jury at The Playlist.

Sequels are a tough sell in the horror genre. While there are some great ones every once in a blue moon, most of them are pretty terrible, including the recently released “Halloween Kills.” So, in honor of the terrible sequel issue, this episode of The Playlist Podcast is devoted to talking about horror films that didn’t get a sequel (and didn’t need a sequel) because they’re perfect just how they are.

Continue reading Upset With ‘Halloween Kills?’ Here Are Some Great Horror Films That Weren’t Ruined By Sequels [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

Vincent Lindon is the heart of “Titane.” Since French director Julia Ducournau’s provocative new film premiered at Cannes Film Festival, making her the second woman to win the coveted Palme d’Or, similar to her first film “Raw,” it’s developed a near-mythical reputation as one of the wildest films ever. However, this wild movie is also a tender story, one concerning the love and loneliness felt by a mourning father. That father, Vincent, is portrayed by Lindon. 

READ MORE: ‘Titane’: The New Flesh Is Thriving, Living Rent-Free in Julia Ducournau’s F*cked Up Metallica Brain [Cannes Review]

In “Titane,” Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is a well-known, terse showgirl dancing in an automotive showroom.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: Vincent Lindon On Finding Heart In Absurdism, Hating Dancing & Comparing The Wild Film To ‘The Shape Of Water’ [NYFF] at The Playlist.

“When I write, I always write about the image first,” explains French director Julia Ducournau. It’s her indelible, singular use of imagery that made her previous film, “Raw,” about a vegetarian who becomes a cannibal, a movie that led to an audience member fainting during a 2016 screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her same magic with the image, when words may come up short, is apparent in her follow-up, the intoxicating love story: “Titane.” 

READ MORE: ‘Titane’: The New Flesh Is Thriving, Living Rent-Free in Julia Ducournau’s F*cked Up Metallica Brain [Cannes Review]

“Titane” is one of those movies where even if someone explained the plot to you, you still wouldn’t be spoiled because seeing is truly believing.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: Julia Ducournau Talks Her Provocative New Film, ‘The Macarena’ & More [NYFF Interview] at The Playlist.

When Julia Ducournau‘s last film, 2016’s “Raw,” premiered in the International Critics’ Week section of that year’s Cannes Film Festival, it generated massive amounts of buzz. That translated to a bump up to the main competition for her new film, “Titane,” and in the end, taking home the big best picture prize, aka the Palme d’Or.

READ MORE: ‘Titane’ Teaser Trailer: Julia Ducournau Returns With A Creepy Cannes-Bound Thriller 

As grotesque as “Raw” and its irrepressible appetites were, by all accounts, “Titane” is very weirder, more aggressive, bizarre, horrific, and transgressive, but most reviews (like ours) and synopses are vague to hold back the film’s many surprises.

Continue reading ‘Titane’ Red-Band Trailer: Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or Winner Is A Return To Unsettling Horror at The Playlist.

What do you do if you’ve just won the top Palme d’Or prize and major critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival? If you’re the studio Neon, you give the film in question, the body horror “Titane,” a plum fall Oscar-worthy release date in the U.S., and you also hew it towards Halloween, given its darker and f*cked up tendencies. Neon has just announced that “Titane,” directed by acclaimed French filmmaker Julia Ducournau (“Raw“), has been given an October 1 release date in the U.S.

Continue reading Cannes’ Palme d’Or Winner ‘Titane’ Sets October U.S. Release Date at The Playlist.

Well, that’s a wrap on the 2021 Cannes Film Festival; 56 reviews and counting (there might be one or two more stragglers to come, but we are basically done). It was a pretty great festival and strong year despite the COVID-19 protocol confusion, those changing rules, and Spike Lee spoiling the Palme d’Or prize early (Spike!!).

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch

2021 was a strong year, and perhaps that’s not a surprise since films like Wes Anderson‘s “The French Dispatch,” Paul Verhoven‘s “Benedetta,” and other movies basically waited an entire year waiting for the global pandemic to subside so they could premiere under optimal conditions.

Continue reading Best Of Cannes 2021: 15 Must-See Movies From The Festival at The Playlist.

The 74th Cannes Film Festival came to an end on Saturday night. It was a sweaty fest full of tourists more interested in the beach than the world premieres and lots of spitting in testing vials for non-Europeans, but it proved that a major festival could return at full capacity during the age of COVID. And, a jury comprised of notable industry players Spike Lee, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Tahar Rahim, among others, selected Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” to win the prestigious Palme d’ Or.

Continue reading Spike Lee Reveals ‘Titane’ As 2021 Cannes Palme d’Or Winner A Bit Early [Full Winners List] at The Playlist.

We can all stop wishing it a long life: the new flesh is thriving, living rent-free in Julia Ducournau‘s fucked-up titanium brain, oozing from every frame of her bizarrely beautiful, emphatically queer sophomore film, and thence seeping in through your orifices, the better to colonize your most lurid, confusing nightmares, as well as that certain class of sex dream that you’d be best off never confessing to having. “Titane,” Ducournau’s follow-up to her sensational debut “Raw,” is roughly seven horror movies plus one bizarrely tender parent-child romance soldered into one machine and painted all over with flames: it’s so replete with startling ideas, suggestive ellipses, transgressive reversals and preposterous propositions that it ought to be a godforsaken mess.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: The New Flesh Is Thriving, Living Rent-Free in Julia Ducournau’s F*cked Up Metallica Brain [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

After not having a Cannes Film Festival in 2020, obviously due to the pandemic, it appears the French event is making up for lost time with an absolutely stacked lineup of features in 2021. And thankfully, for film fans that aren’t able to make the trip to France right now, the festival has released a bunch of first-look photos for some of our most anticipated features of the festival.

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival: Gaspar Noe, Bill Murray, Ari Folman, And More Added To Lineup

For those unaware, as mentioned, the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is chock full of incredible filmmakers and intriguing features that should get film fans excited.

Continue reading Cannes First Looks: ‘Red Rocket,’ The Souvenir II,’ ‘After Yang,’ ‘Titane’ & More at The Playlist.

What’s one of the most anticipated film of 2021? French filmmaker Julia Ducournau‘s “Titane,” the follow-up to her critically-acclaimed horror film “Raw.” Starring Agathe Rousselle and Vincent Lindon, the movie is a thriller about a long-lost child who returns suddenly, but what seems to be the end of a long nightmare soon turns into something else.

READ MORE: 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2021

The film is also set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Titane’ Teaser Trailer: Julia Ducournau Returns With A Creepy New Cannes-Bound Thriller at The Playlist.

To say that Apple’s launch of its streaming service isn’t going as well as the tech company would have hoped is a bit of an understatement. Once the initial slate of series launched in November, each one getting fairly terrible reviews (despite the inexplicable awards recognition for “The Morning Show”), it was clear that Apple TV+ wasn’t going to have a smooth launch. But then came M.

Continue reading ‘Servant’: M. Night Shyamalan Says Directors Of ‘Raw’ & ‘Blue My Mind’ Are Helming Episodes Of Season 2 at The Playlist.

Recently, it was announced that acclaimed filmmaker Julia Ducournau is set to work with NEON for a follow-up film to her breakout debut, “Raw.” At the time, all that was known is that Ducournau is going to write and direct and that the title of the project is “Titane.” However, thanks to a new report, not only do we have a synopsis of the film, but we know who might be leading the cast.

Continue reading ‘Titane’: Cast & Synopsis Revealed For New Film From ‘Raw’ Filmmaker Julia Ducournau at The Playlist.

Film fans have been anxiously awaiting news on filmmaker Julia Ducournau’s next feature for years now. Her previous film, “Raw,” has already become a horror classic after winning the coveted FIPRESCI prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. However, since then, we haven’t heard a peep about what Ducournau has in store for her follow-up.

READ MORE: Horror ‘Raw’ Earns Its Bloody Good Buzz [Review]

Now, thanks to NEON, we know that the filmmaker is working on a new film titled “Titane.” The plot and cast are currently kept under wraps, but what we do know is that Ducournau is writing and directing the feature with Jean Christophe Reymond on board as a producer.

Continue reading ‘Raw’ Director Julia Ducournau Is Teaming With NEON For Secretive New Film ‘Titane’ at The Playlist.

Movie producer Jason Blum rightly found himself in the doghouse yesterday after he asserted, in an interview with Polygon, that his horror giant Blumhouse has never hired a female director because “there are not a lot of female directors, period, and even less who are inclined to do horror.” To save face, Blum’s team then rattled off a number of female directors (read: ungrateful bitches) who purportedly turned down their oh-so-tantalizing offer to helm a “Fantasy Island” film. 

Continue reading 15 Female Filmmakers That Could Kill It At Horror [Hi, Jason Blum!] at The Playlist.

The turkey carcass is nearly bare and extremely unappetizing by now. The tinsel has gone limp and the dog has chewed off all the low-hanging tree baubles. It can only mean the year is ending, and so what better time to look at some of the new starts it’s given us? Over the last twelve months, while most of us have been having, let’s be honest, a pretty terrible time of it, a lucky few have had their big breaks and will look back on 2017 with a fondness the rest of us can only dimly relate to.

Continue reading The Breakout Talents Of 2017 at The Playlist.

There’s a moment early in “Kissing Candice” that recalls a fake trailer Andy Samberg made for his 2013 Independent Spirit Awards hosting gig, mocking the sort of movies that get nominated for Independent Spirit Awards. The trailer, “Bottlecap,” sells the inspirational story of Bottlecap, whose only desire is to stick her arm out of car windows and roll her hand in the wind. She’s stymied by her father, J.K.

Continue reading ‘Kissing Candice’ Is A Beautifully Shot Female Coming-Of-Age Story [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I discuss the importance of going out to the movies and preserving the theatrical experience (especially as streaming outlets are seemingly devaluing it). Then it’s onto the main discussion of new genre mashup films “Personal Shopper” (the ghost story and mystery starring Kristen Stewart from director Oliver Assayas) and “Raw” (the cannibal coming-of-age horror), with the latter film already an early AYT favorite for 2017.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Talks Preserving Theatrical Experience, Poly-Genre Films ‘Personal Shopper’ & ‘Raw’ at The Playlist.

You better learn to remember the name of French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, who made a big splash last year at Cannes with her take on the cannibal movie, “Raw.” The film, which premiered as part of Critics’ Week, justly won the FIPRESCI prize and set her on the map for cinematic stardom. A new, unique voice was born.

In “Raw,” the 32 year-old writer-director shows surprisingly sharp command and, more importantly, indelible restraint for the usually over-the-top genre.

Continue reading ‘Raw’ Director Julia Ducournau Talks About Her Bloody & Brutal New Horror Film [Interview] at The Playlist.

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

We’ve all known vegetarians who have decided to change their diet out of concern for animal rights or the environment or based upon religious beliefs. And to those who forgo meat, it’s usually a deeply held conviction. Those same people might not be very kind to 32-year-old writer-director Julia Ducournau‘s “Raw.” In it, we meet bright-eyed Justine (Garance Marillier), who follows in the footsteps of both her parents (Laurent Lucas and Joana Preiss) and older sister (Ella Rumpf) by attending her first year at veterinary school.

Continue reading Horror ‘Raw’ Earns Its Bloody Good Buzz [Review] at The Playlist.