Cannes 2024 preview: The 10 Palme d’Or contenders you need to look out for

It’s nearly upon us, and once again, the Cannes Film Festival has unveiled a doozy of a line-up - which is saying plenty considering last year’s stellar selection.  

Putting aside the #MeToo bombshell report which looms over the festivities, as well as strike actions which threaten to derail the festival (it’s going to be a busy and stressful edition, for sure), we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to this year in terms of the seventh art.

We’re sticking to the Competition films for this one – we don’t want to overwhelm you. Or us, for that matter.

These are the 10 titles vying for this year’s Palme d’Or that we’re particularly looking forward to - in no particular order.

Canada – Ireland – Denmark – Directed by Ali Abbasi

Fresh from his Silver Bear-winning turn in A Different Man, Sebastian Stan dons more prosthetics in Iranian-Danish director Abbasi’s first English-­language feature. He stars are the tangerine menace himself, as the film follows Donald Trump as a young real-estate executive in 1970s New York. He’ll apparently enter into “a Faustian deal” with right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Succession ’s Jeremy Strong). Beyond the timely, headline-grabbing nature of the film, considering Trump’s ongoing legal woes and the déja-vu presidential looming, should this deliver on the promising premise centred around corruption and deception, Abbasi could be in for a serious Palme d’Or shot. The director already won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2018 for his fantasy film Border, and 2022’s terrific Holy Spider won Best Actress in Cannes for Zar Amir Ebrahimi. Expect to hear a lot on this one during the festivities. 

US – Directed by Sean Baker

Baker is no stranger to the Croisette, having premiered The Florida Project i