Starring French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri alongside Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, and the iconic Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch was bound for success. By the looks of it, it’s already well on its way.
The film will make its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it will compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or award. The news was confirmed by the festival’s organizers this week.
The film was due to make its debut at Cannes last year before the festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. It was then postponed until October 2020 before later seeing an indefinite postponement. But cancellations are officially a thing of the past.
It will compete with Annette for the award, a film starring the renowned French actress Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver. It will also be competing with Benedetta, by the Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, who is best known for directing Basic Instinct. The full lineup for the competition is set to be announced on June 3.
Khoudri is set to play Juliette, a student activist in Paris and Chalamet’s love interest. The actress snagged the role before receiving her César for Promising Actress in 2019.
“Wes had never seen me on a screen before. It all started with a video to be sent to production. One night I filmed myself with my cell phone. I had to introduce myself. I talked about participating in a job at my high school in Saint-Ouen: I skipped classes and went dancing on the street with my friends,” she told L’Officiel in an interview about her audition. She took on the role of Juliette in The French Dispatch.
