Directors’ Fortnight Showcase
Since 1969, when it was created by the Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de films, the Directors’ Fortnight—an independent sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival—has been a non-competitive showcase for some of the fest’s most original, unexpected films. Bringing together documentary, fiction, and animated films of all lengths, the selection is guided by the committee’s agreement on “a filmmaker’s attendance to mise en scene, and their unique mode of artistic expression.” A series of 21st century highlights from this hotbed of cinematic excellence.
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Chile '76
Directed by Manuela Martelli | 97 mins | 2022
Martelli’s directorial debut is an absorbing noir-tinged historical drama set in the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. Aline Küppenheim stars as a middle-class Santiago housewife who is drawn into an anti-government conspiracy wh... -
Night Across the Street
Directed by Raúl Ruiz | 113 mins | 2012
The last completed film by Chilean master Ruiz is a melancholic memoir film, a playful puzzle box of a movie in which an office worker approaching retirement reflects back on his life—including events that may not necessarily have happened. A sublime swan s... -
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia | 96 mins | 2021
An emotionally charged, intimate examination of the lives of Indian university students, Kapadia’s riveting documentary, winner of the L’Oeil d’or at the Cannes Film Festival, is built around a series of letters written by a student, L, to her estranged ... -
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
Directed by Bruno Dumont | 111 mins | 2017
Dumont puts a truly original spin on the Maid of Orleans’s origin myth in this headbanging rock opera, sung entirely a cappella to a synth-metal score. Eight-year-old Joan (Lise Leplat Prudhomme), fed up with the indignity of English occupation, sets her... -
The Tsugua Diaries
Directed by Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes | 102 mins | 2021
The relaxed routine of housemates Carlos, Crista, and João, living in rural isolation during the COVID pandemic, gives way to beguiling mystery in this meta-movie about the demands of filmmaking and the laxity of lockdown life, cap... -
Ghost Tropic
Directed by Bas Devos | 85 mins | 2019
After falling asleep on the Brussels subway after a long night’s work, 58-year-old Maghrebi cleaning woman Khadija (Saadia Bentaïeb) wakes up to find herself at the end of the line. and sets out to make her way home on foot, A city portrait beautifully rende... -
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Directed by Chloé Zhao | 93 mins | 2015
The feature debut of Zhao, future winner of Best Director Oscar for Nomadland, Songs My Brother Taught Me is an understated yet deeply felt naturalistic drama about life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, focused on two siblings (Jashuan ... -
Girlhood
Directed by Céline Sciamma | 113 mins | 2014
Set in the suburbs of Paris, Sciamma’s coming-of-age story stars Karidja Touré as Marieme, a 16-year-old who finds a sense of sorority, camaraderie, and mutual support when she joins up with an amateur “gang” of girls her age—much to the chagrin of her...
