The stakes are high. In 2024, the 77th edition of the most prestigious and influential film festival in the world reached unforeseen heights, even for an event of such dimension. The films in the official selection have since snatched 2,100 nominations and 700 awards in the international cinem,a stage. Sean Baker’s Anora received five Oscar awards (including Best Picture), an unprecedented feat for a Palme d’or winner. Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance also earned multiple Oscar prizes and nods.

Two DMovies journalists – Victor Fraga and Eoghan Lyng – attended the event last year, and they reviewed virtually all films in the main competitive sections (exceeding a grand total of 50 publications during the course of the Festival). They are back this year, looking forward to sink their teeth into this year’s selection, and putting their dirty thoughts to (digital) paper. So they have cherry picked the Top 10 films which they are most excited to watch. They are mostly (but not exclusively) brand new creations by familiar names. They are the dirty movies over Victor and Eoghan might lose a night or two of sleep.

But will they leave the cinema with tears running down their face, their heart racing with excitement, or with the burning desire to set the red carpet on fire? Stay tuned and find out.

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Victor and Eoghan’s Top 10 films they’re are looking forward to seeing are listed below, in no specific order.

1. Alpha (Julia Ducournau);
2. Romeria (Carla Simon);
3. Sirat (Oliver Laxe);
4. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonca Filho);
5. Orwell: 2+2=5, Raoul Peck
6. Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser);
7. Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson, pictured at the top of this article);
8. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Diego Céspedes);
9. Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning, (Christopher McQuarrie);
10. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele (Kirill Serebrennikov)

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And here are the two films Victor and Eoghan will desperately seek to avoid, or watch Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) style.

• The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson) – while Eoghan is a fan of the idiosyncratic 55-year-old American directors, Victor would rather stick multiple needles in his eyes; and
• The History Of Sound (Oliver Hermanus) – during a heated conversation with Victor, Eoghan gave his opinion about the movie plot (“two men who meet in 1916 and travel together in order record the folk songs in rural New England”). He put it subtly: “this sounds tacky as f**k”.

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And here is the full selection:

Competition

• Alpha (Julia Ducournau);
• Dossier 137 (Dominik Moll);
• Eddington (Ari Aster);
• Eagles Of The Republic (Tarik Saleh);
• Fuori (Mario Martone);
• The History Of Sound (Oliver Hermanus);
• The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt);
• Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater);
• La Petit (Chie Hayakawa);
• Romeria (Carla Simon);
• The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonca Filho);
• Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier);
• A Simple Accident (Jafar Panahi);
• Sirat (Oliver Laxe);
• Sound Of Falling (Mascha Schilinski);
• Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa); and
• The Young Mother’s Home (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne).

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Out of competition

• Colours Of Time (Cedric Klapisch);
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie);
• Partir Un Jour (Amélie Bonnin);
• The Richest Woman In The World (Thierry Klifa); and
• Vie Privée (Rebecca Zlotowski).

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Midnight Screenings

• Dalloway (Yann Gozlan);
• Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura); and
• Sons Of The Neon Night (Juno Mak).

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Cannes Premiere

• Amrum (Fatih Akin);
• Connemara (Alex Lutz);
• The Disappearance Of Josef Mengele (Kirill Serebrennikov);
• Orwell: 2+2=5, (Raoul Peck);
• Splitsville (Mike Corvino); and
• The Wave (Sebastian Lelio).

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Special Screenings

• Bono: Stories Of Surrender, (Andrew Dominik);
• A Magnificent Life (Sylvain Chomet); and
• Tell Her That I Love Her (Romane Bohringer).

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Un Certain Regard

• Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Morad Mostafa);
• Caravan (Zuzana Kirchnerová);
• Eleanor The Great (Scarlett Johansson);
• Heads Or Tails? (Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis);
• Homebound (Neeraj Ghaywan);
• The Last One For The Road (Francesco Sossai);
• L’inconnu de la Grande Arche (Stéphane Demoustier);
• Meteors Hubert Charuel);
• The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo (Diego Céspedes);
• My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr);
• Once Upon A Time In Gaza (Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser);
• A Pale View Of The Hills (Kei Ishikawa);
• Pillion (Harry Lighton);
• Promised Sky (Erige Sehiri);
• The Plague (Charlie Polinger;) and
• Urchin (Harris Dickinson).