Paul Schrader and Francis Ford Coppola Are in Cannes Competition for the First Time in Decades
This year’s 77th Cannes Film Festival will mark a meeting of the New Hollywood minds in France. Not only is George Lucas receiving the festival’s Honorary Palme d’Or, but filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Paul Schrader are in the official Competition for the first time in decades.
While Schrader has gone the route of Venice for his “lonely man in a room” trilogy — “First Reformed,” “The Card Counter,” and “Master Gardener” all premiered in Italy — he’s at Cannes this year with “Oh, Canada.” The lineup was confirmed this morning by Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux. The contemplative drama about a tortured writer looking back on his years as a leftist who fled to Canada to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War stars Jacob Elordi, Richard Gere, and Uma Thurman. Cue the flashbulbs for a buzzy Elordi red carpet moment. The “Euphoria” breakout was last seen on the festival circuit for 2023’s “Priscilla,” which brought him to Venice under a SAG-AFTRA interim waiver amid the strikes.
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Schrader wrote the script for 1976 Palme d’Or winner “Taxi Driver,” directed by Martin Scorsese. The Oscar-nominated writer/director rarely shows up in Cannes: His last film to premiere in competition was 1988’s “Patty Hearst.” He was also nominated for the Palme in 1985 with “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” executive-produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola (IndieWire last year deemed it the second-best movie of the 1980s.) “Oh, Canada” is based on the novel “Foregone” by Russell Banks; the drama is awaiting distribution, but buyers will be watching for this one on the Croisette. Among Schrader’s last times in Cannes, his film “The Comfort of Strangers,” a moody adaptation of Ian McEwan’s psychosexual novel set in Venice, premiered Out of Competition in 1990.
Meanwhile, one of Schrader’s New Hollywood brethren, Francis Ford Coppola, is also in competition for the first time since … 1979? That’s when he won the Palme d’Or for “Apocalypse Now.” Coppola also won the Palme d’Or in 1974 for “The Conversation,” his “Blow-Up”-inspired follow-up to “The Godfather,” which he wedged between the first “Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II.” Coppola previously served as president of the Cannes jury in 1996, the year he supposedly blocked David Cronenberg’s “Crash” from winning more than a jury prize. (Cronenberg is in this year’s Cannes lineup, too, with the semiautobiographical “The Shrouds.”) His last appearance was when “Tetro” premiered in Directors Fortnight in 2009.
All eyes are on “Megalopolis,” Coppola’s first feature since 2011’s “Twixt,” self-funded to the cool tune of $120 million and still without a distributor. Though first reactions are apparently strong for the sci-fi epic starring Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, and Aubrey Plaza — Coppola has shown it to filmmakers and friends stateside so far — how this movie will make back its budget is anyone’s guess. Not that it matters for Coppola, who has deemed “Megalopolis” a longtime passion project. The arthouse opus has been described as “batshit crazy,” utilizing new VFX techniques and an unconventional narrative to round out its sprawling cast in a ruined NYC-like metropolis, with Driver starring as an idealist named Caesar.
Along with his lack of presence at Cannes, Coppola has not had a commercial hit in decades, either, as the filmmaker continues to push the boundaries of narrative storytelling. Not exactly the stuff of box office dreams, but no matter. The idea for the film, Coppola’s cohorts have described, dates all the way back to the days of 1979 Palme winner “Apocalypse Now,” the movie that nearly killed him to make.
While Coppola’s competition slot was previously reported prior to Thursday’s lineup unveiling, the writing was also on the walls when his pal George Lucas was tapped to receive an Honorary Palme. Lucas will be there to support his friend.
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