The 10 films from the Cannes Film Festival 2024 to look out for this year, including 'Anora' which took the Palme d'Or

Coppola's first film in 13 years has been called many things in the incredibly divisive reviews that followed its unveiling at Cannes, meaning that it's certainly one that any cinephile should be excited to check out. Is the Adam Driver-starring picture really a "banal vanity project," as The Ringer's Manuela Lazic put it? Or did Little White Lies's David Jenkins get it right when he described "Megalopolis" as a "kaleidoscopic, enriching, Wellsian vision"?

Sadly though, the self-funded sci-fi saga — Coppola director sold some of his wine business and personally put up $120 million to make "Megalopolis" happen — has yet to find a US distributor, so audiences may be waiting a while to find out what's really going on this "Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America" (that's what the vague synopsis describes it as).

Release date: TBC

Coppola isn't the only one rolling out a self-funded passion project that's been in the making for decades. There's also actor-director Kevin Costner's "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1," a Civil War-era western epic that the erstwhile "Yellowstone" actor has wanted to make for over 35 years.

Like "Megalopolis," it too has been battered by critics who have labeled it an audacious, self-financed gamble (Note the subtitle in the movie title, denoting that it is one of many installments to come). The film lacks a "moving" story for viewers and "feels like the seedbed for a miniseries," according to Owen Gleiberman, Variety's chief film critic, whose views were echoed in reviews from The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair.

Nevertheless, it's certainly piqued our interest amid the revival of the Western genre and Warner Bros.'s absolutely bonkers release strategy. Chapter 2 is debuting in August, two months after Chapter 1's release.

Release date: June 28, 2024

Yorgos Lanthimos leaves the pseudo-Victorian world of "Poor Things" but keeps Emma Stone, all the eccentricities, and his signature biting comedy style in his latest feature, "Kinds of Kindness."

The film is a triple helping of Lanthimos, if anything, as it tells three stories about the push-and-pull of relationship dynamics. All of them star Stone, Jesse Plemmons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, and Mamoudou Athie.

It's been hailed as "peak Yorgos" by the AV Club, which is to say that if you thought the Greek auteur's recent work ("Poor Things," "The Favorite," "The Killing of a Sacred Deer") was shocking and sordid, then you haven't seen anything yet.

Release date: June 21, 2024

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" marks the fifth movie in George Miller's high-octane action franchise and it seems that the director is just getting better and better at what he does. A prequel to 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Roads," "Furiosa" tells the origin story of Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa and how her epic journey to return to her homeland began.

"The movie is teemingly, sprawlingly, phantasmagorically ambitious," said Variety critic Owen Gleiberman, who deemed it "not like any other "Mad Max" film."

However, for all the praise "Furiosa" has received, some critics agree that it doesn't surpass Miller's thrilling opus, "Fury Road."

"'Furiosa' is a big step down from 'Mad Max: Fury Road,'" opined The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney, adding that the film "grinds on in fits and starts, with little tension or fluidity in a narrative whose shapelessness is heightened by its pretentious chapter structure."

Release date: May 24, 2024

One of the notable biopics to feature at this year's festival, Ali Abbasi's "The Apprentice" dramatizes the relationship between a young Donald J. Trump (Sebastian Stan) and his mentor, the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

It's an unflattering portrait by all accounts, but notably also features a scene in which Stan's Trump is shown violently throwing his ex-wife Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova) to the ground and having non-consensual sex with her, according to Variety.

Critics have praised the film, with The Daily Beast's Esther Zuckerman going so far as to suggest that Strong may find himself an Oscar contender next spring, calling his performance as the 'Red Scare' prosecutor "another master class from the 'Succession' star."

Elsewhere, the BBC's Nicholas Barber described "The Apprentice" as a "compellingly cynical buddy movie," while The Financial Times's Raphael Abraham called it "a relatively safe portrait of a deeply contentious figure."

Trump himself has labeled the movie "malicious defamation" and has threatened to sue.

Release date: TBC

French director Jacques Audiard offers up a feast for the eyes and ears in his new musical drama "Emilia Perez," which sees Selena Gomez, Zoë Saldaña, and newcomer Karla Sofía Gascón sing and dance their way through a gripping story about gender identity and trans liberation set against the backdrop of Mexico's cartel wars.

While a critic for The Times of London has praised it as a "musical for our time," Little White Lies panned it as "outwardly kitsch melodrama," which feels reminiscent of 2021's "Annette," which went on to win Leos Carax the Cannes prize for best director.

Release date: TBC

"Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?" is the question at the center of "The Substance," French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat's English-language submission at Cannes. The film stars Demi Moore as an aging actor who goes to war with her body after being told she's being replaced on her television show with a younger star.

With comparisons to the king of body horror, David Cronenberg, and Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or-winning " Titane" and widespread praise from critics (Total Film's James Mottram' called it a "smart, savage look at aging, beauty, and the male gaze") "The Substance" has cemented itself as one of the most memorable Cannes premieres of 2024.

Release date: September 20, 2024

In Paul Schrader's "Oh, Canada," — based on Russell Banks' novel "Foregone" — Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi play older and younger incarnations of a successful American documentarian who fled to Canada to avoid the draft and is now reflecting on his life from his death bed.

It's been deemed "easily the least sensationalist entry in Schrader's oeuvre" by Deadline critic Pete Hammond, while IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio suggested that the film leaves audiences just as "confused" as its dying protagonist.

However, the cast has been praised for their affecting performances, with Screen International's Johnathan Romney arguing that "amid the formal fluidity, the forceful acting keeps us hooked."

Release date: TBC

After an incredible breakout year, Irish actor Barry Keoghan of "Saltburn"-fame shows off a new side of himself in Andrea Arnold's "Bird."

In it, he plays a young dad named Bug raising his kids in a squat in a dilapidated seaside town in England. The titular Bird is played by Franz Rogowski, whom Bug's 12-year-old daughter Bailey, played by Nykiya Adams, meets by chance after running away from home.

The Times of London's Kevin Maher described the film as an "earnest film about truth and love," but some critics have said that the storyline shifts gears too dramatically in the second half, leading to an ending that, as Little White Lies's Sophie Monks Kauffman, puts it "leans upon contrivances."

Release date: TBC

After dazzling the audience at Cannes with his 2017 hit, "The Florida Project," Sean Baker returns with another story about a sex worker trying to make ends meet. This time, her name is Anora (Mikey Madison) — or Ani as she prefers — a private dancer working at a strip club in New York City who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch.

The film is praised as "a sly commentary on the self-entitlement of the rich and powerful," per Screen International's James Mottram review. Madison has also received widespread acclaim for her role. The Daily Beast's Esther Zuckerman wrote that the movie "entirely rests on Madison's performance as the tough-as-nails Anora," while Screen Idle's Wendy Ide called the young star "a revelation."

Release date: TBC