The Cannes 2021 Movie Scorecard

Critics Consensus: The Worst Person in the World concludes Joachim Trier's Oslo Trilogy with a romantic comedy that delightfully subverts the genre's well-worn tropes.

Synopsis: The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It chronicles four years in... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie, Maria Grazia Di Meo, Renate Reinsve, Herbert Nordrum

Directed By: Joachim Trier

Critics Consensus: The Velvet Underground takes a fittingly idiosyncratic approach to delivering a rock documentary that captures the band as well as its era.

Synopsis: The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock 'n' roll's most revered bands.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Mary Woronov, Jonathan Richman, John Cale, Maureen Ann Tucker

Directed By: Todd Haynes

Critics Consensus: A Hero finds writer-director Asghar Farhadi once again grappling with weighty themes -- with the audience emerging as the winner.

Synopsis: Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Sahar Goldoost, Fereshteh Sadrorafaei

Directed By: Asghar Farhadi

Critics Consensus: Discomfiting and dreamy, Clara Sola brings a sensual surreality to a story of oppressed autonomy, with debuting star Wendy Chinchilla Araya providing a mesmerizing focal point.

Synopsis: In a remote village in Costa Rica, 40-year-old Clara endures a repressively religious and withdrawn life under the command of her mother. Her uncanny affinity... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Flor María Vargas Chaves

Directed By: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén

Critics Consensus: Drawing on another terrific performance from Honor Swinton Byrne, The Souvenir Part II continues its story with profound emotional complexity and elegant storytelling.

Synopsis: In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Honor Swinton Byrne, Jaygann Ayeh, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade

Directed By: Joanna Hogg

Critics Consensus: Thrillingly provocative and original, Titane reaffirms writer-director Julia Ducournau's delightfully disturbing vision.

Synopsis: Titane: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due to its pronounced biocompatibility.

Starring: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh

Directed By: Julia Ducournau

Critics Consensus: Led by Simon Rex's magnetic performance, Red Rocket is another vibrant, ground-level look at modern American life from director/co-writer Sean Baker.

Synopsis: The audacious new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), starring Simon Rex in a magnetic, live-wire performance, Red Rocket is a darkly... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Simon Rex, Suzanna Son, Bree Elrod, Brenda Deiss

Directed By: Sean Baker

Critics Consensus: Everything Went Fine faces serious themes with an effectively light touch -- and the estimable talents of its brilliant veteran stars.

Synopsis: When André (André Dussollier) contacts his adult daughter, Emmanuèle, (Sophie Marceau) with a devastating final wish, she is forced to reconcile her past with him,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Sophie Marceau, Charlotte Rampling, André Dussollier, Géraldine Pailhas

Directed By: François Ozon

Critics Consensus: Lingui, the Sacred Bonds uses one family's fraught story to offer a forceful rejoinder to the oppressive norms of patriarchal culture.

Synopsis: On the outskirts of N'Djamena in Chad, Amina lives alone with her only 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world collapses the day she discovers... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Achouackh Abakar, Rihane Khalil Alio, Youssouf Djaoro, Briya Gomdigue

Directed By: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Critics Consensus: An absorbingly reflective documentary that benefits from its subject's self-chronicling, Val offers an intimate look at a unique life and career.

Synopsis: For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Val Kilmer, Jack Kilmer

Directed By: Ting Poo, Leo Scott

Critics Consensus: Mothering Sunday works at a frustratingly chilly remove, but involving performances and solid overall craft mean it's rarely less than engaging.

Synopsis: On a warm spring day in 1924, house maid and foundling Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) finds herself alone on Mother's Day. Her employers, Mr. and... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Odessa Young, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Olivia Colman

Directed By: Eva Husson

Critics Consensus: Annette's experimental approach to its emotional extremes marks an ambitious, if not peculiar, return for director Leos Carax.

Synopsis: Los Angeles, today. Henry (Adam Driver) is a stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor who falls in love with Ann (Marion Cotillard), a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell

Directed By: Leos Carax

Critics Consensus: Memoria finds writer-director Apichatpong Weerasethakul branching out into English-language filmmaking without forsaking any of his own lyrical cinematic vocabulary.

Synopsis: Ever since being startled by a loud 'bang' at daybreak, Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is unable to sleep. In Bogotá to visit her sister, she befriends... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Elkin Díaz, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego

Directed By: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Critics Consensus: A loving ode to the spirit of journalism, The French Dispatch will be most enjoyed by fans of Wes Anderson's meticulously arranged aesthetic.

Synopsis: THE FRENCH DISPATCH brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city.

Starring: Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux

Directed By: Wes Anderson

Critics Consensus: Stillwater isn't perfect, but its thoughtful approach to intelligent themes -- and strong performances from its leads -- give this timely drama a steadily building power.

Synopsis: Unemployed roughneck Bill Baker (Academy Award® winner Matt Damon) travels from Oklahoma to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter Allison (Academy Award® nominee Abigail Breslin).... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, Lilou Siauvaud

Directed By: Tom McCarthy

Critics Consensus: Precariously walking a tightrope of varying genres and tones, Benedetta provokes salient questions about sexual freedom and its relationship to faith.

Synopsis: Based on a true story, a 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Daphne Patakia

Directed By: Paul Verhoeven

Critics Consensus: A stark and emotionally resonant look at the life of a farm animal, Cow simply yet insistently asks the viewer to reconsider their relationship with their food.

Synopsis: Academy Award-winner Andrea Arnold returns with an intimate portrait of one dairy cow's life. The film highlights the beauty and challenges cows face, and their... View Full Synopsis

Directed By: Andrea Arnold

Critics Consensus: Although its reach occasionally exceeds its grasp, After Yang yields rich rewards for those willing to settle into its low-key wavelength.

Synopsis: When his young daughter's beloved companion -- an android named Yang -- malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way to repair him. In the... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja

Directed By: Kogonada

Critics Consensus: An unforgettable blend of the conventional and the singularly strange, Aline is definitely odd, but it's also oddly entertaining.

Synopsis: For Aline Dieu, nothing in the world matters more than music, family and love. Her powerful and emotional voice captivates everyone who hears it, including... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Valérie Lemercier, Sylvain Marcel, Danielle Fichaud, Roc Lafortune

Directed By: Valérie Lemercier

Critics Consensus: Led by a typically brilliant performance from Juliette Binoche, Between Two Worlds takes a pointed yet possibly patronizing look at the human face of economic inequality.

Synopsis: Famed author Marianne Winckler (Juliette Binoche) goes undercover to investigate the exploitation of the working class in Northern France. She eventually lands a job as... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Hélène Lambert, Louise Pociecka, Steve Papagiannis

Directed By: Emmanuel Carrère

Critics Consensus: Minor but charming, the well-acted Bergman Island uses the titular filmmaker's legacy as the launchpad for a dreamlike rumination on romance and creativity.

Synopsis: BERGMAN ISLAND follows a couple of American filmmakers, Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth), who retreat to the mythical Fårö island for the summer.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska, Anders Danielsen Lie

Directed By: Mia Hansen-Løve

Critics Consensus: An occasionally uneasy blend of human drama and message movie, Ahed's Knee forcefully reaffirms that the personal is political.

Synopsis: A celebrated Israeli filmmaker named Y arrives in a remote desert village to present one of his films at a local library. Struggling to cope... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Avshalom Pollak, Nur Fibak, Lidor Edri, Yoram Honig

Directed By: Nadav Lapid

Critics Consensus: Nitram asks viewers to face a gut-wrenchingly grim moment in Australian history -- but rewards that effort with a gripping, well-acted character study.

Synopsis: Nitram (Caleb Landry-Jones) lives with his mother (Judy Davis) and father (Anthony LaPaglia) in suburban Australia in the Mid 1990s. He lives a life of... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Sean Keenan, Essie Davis

Directed By: Justin Kurzel

Critics Consensus: Minor but engaging Audiard, Paris, 13th District explores millennial love through a visually compelling lens that's partly undercut by its episodic narrative structure.

Synopsis: Émilie meets Camille who is attracted to Nora, who crosses paths with Amber. Three girls and a boy -- they're friends, sometimes lovers and often... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba, Noémie Merlant, Jehnny Beth

Directed By: Jacques Audiard

Critics Consensus: Although it's frustratingly casual with the line between facts and conjecture, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass reaffirms Oliver Stone's gifts as an engaging raconteur.

Synopsis: Thirty years after his film JFK, filmmaker Oliver Stone takes viewers on a journey though recently declassified evidence in the assassination of President Kennedy --... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Whoopi Goldberg, Cyril H. Wecht, Gary Aguilar

Directed By: Oliver Stone

Critics Consensus: F9 sends the franchise hurtling further over the top than ever, but director Justin Lin's knack for preposterous set pieces keeps the action humming.

Synopsis: Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson

Directed By: Justin Lin

Critics Consensus: Blue Bayou can be indelicate in its attempts to tug the heartstrings, but solid acting and a genuinely affecting story make this drama difficult to ignore.

Synopsis: From award-winning writer/director Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon),... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, Linh Dan Pham

Directed By: Justin Chon

Critics Consensus: France might have benefited from a more passionate approach to its themes, but Léa Seydoux leads an amusing send-up of celebrity culture.

Synopsis: In FRANCE, a satirical drama set in contemporary Paris, Léa Seydoux stars as France de Meurs, a seemingly unflappable superstar TV journalist whose career, home... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli

Directed By: Bruno Dumont

Critics Consensus: Flag Day benefits from powerful performances and a moving fact-based story, but it's largely lost in the movie's melodramatic din.

Synopsis: Jennifer Vogel's father John was larger than life. As a child, Jennifer marveled at his magnetizing energy and ability to make life feel like a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Dylan Penn, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Norbert Leo Butz

Directed By: Sean Penn

Critics Consensus: Lacking the essential spark of director Nanni Moretti's best work, Three Floors does a dreary disservice to its laudable themes.

Synopsis: The lives of three families living in the same apartment building in Rome's Prati neighbourhood.

Starring: Margherita Buy, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alba Rohrwacher, Adriano Giannini

Directed By: Nanni Moretti

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Rehana, an assistant professor at a medical college, strains to combine her complex roles as a teacher, doctor, sister, daughter, and mother. Keeping the balance... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Azmeri Haque Badhon

Directed By: Abdullah Mohammad Saad