Strong presence for Irish film at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, with Screen Ireland-supported projects The Apprentice and September Says to receive World Premiere
Posted: 11th April 2024
Five Irish films will receive their World Premiere at the festival, with two Screen Ireland-supported projects selected for Official Competition and Un Certain Regard
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to welcome the news that five Irish films will receive their World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The agency extends it sincere congratulations to the creative teams and Irish producers behind each of the films.
Two of the films have been supported by Screen Ireland: Ali Abassi’s The Apprentice, which has been selected for Official Competition and Ariane Labed’s September Says, selected for Un Certain Regard.
Irish director Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer will receive its World Premiere in the Midnight Screenings strand. Element Pictures’ On Becoming a Guinea Fowl will screen in Un Certain Regard and Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film Kinds of Kindness is in Official Competition.
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, said:
“Screen Ireland is delighted that there is such a strong presence for Irish film and creative artists at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It is a remarkable achievement, and our sincere congratulations go to the creative teams behind of all of these films.
Following on from major festival success earlier this year at Sundance and the Berlinale, it marks yet another step in Irish film’s remarkable journey and its global impact around the world.”
Irish talent in front of and behind the camera is further represented across the Cannes Film Festival this year, with the selection of Andrea Arnold’s Bird in Official Competition, starring Barry Keoghan and with Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan.
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the world’s most prestigious and competitive international film festivals, and is an invaluable platform for filmmakers and artists to launch their film to the international market. Irish film that has screened at the Cannes Film Festival across its programmes in the past includes Palme d’Or winner The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006), as well as recent Irish films God’s Creatures (2022) and Vivarium (2019).
The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival runs from 14th - 25th May 2024.
The Apprentice
The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abassi and written by Gabe Sherman, is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire. It charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn. The film is a Canadian/Irish/Danish co-production. It is produced by Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films (Canada), Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films, and Ali Abbasi and Louis Tisné for Film Institute.
Executive Producers are Amy Baer, Mark H. Rapaport, Emanuel Nunez, Josh Marks, Grant S. Johnson, Phil Hunt and Compton Ross, Thorsten Schumacher, Niamh Fagan, Gabe Sherman, Lee Broda, James Shani.
Financiers are Kinematics, Head Gear Films, Screen Ireland, Film i Väst, The Danish Film Institute and National Bank of Canada.
September Says
September Says is based on the novel ‘Sisters’ by Daisy Johnson and adapted to the screen by Labed. It is a Sackville, Crybaby, MFP co-production in association with Element Pictures. The film is produced by Chelsea Morgan Hoffmann, Lara Hickey, Ed Guiney, and Andrew Lowe. It was developed by Element Pictures and BBC Film, with support of the Creative Europe Programme, MEDIA, and financed by BBC Film, in association with Screen Ireland with support of Eurimages and NRW in association with UK Global Screen Fund and with the participation of Arte / ZDF. The Match Factory is handling worldwide sales.
Sisters July and September are thick as thieves, though very different -September is protective and distrustful of others, while July is open to and curious about the world. Their dynamic is a concern to their single mum, Sheela, who is unsure what to do with them. When September is suspended from their school, July is left to fend for herself and begins to assert her own independence - which does not go unnoticed by September. Tension among the three women builds when they take refuge in an old holiday home in Ireland, where July finds her bond with September shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand or control - and a series of surreal encounters test the family to their limit.
Executive Producers are Claudia Yusef for BBC Film and Greg Martin and Niamh Fagan for Screen Ireland. The co-producers are Rachel Dargavel, Viola Fügen, Michael Weber and Cécile Tollu Polonowski.