Cannes Continues / Some Buzz from Eisenberg / Mike Leigh Has
a Title
CANNES CONTINUES
The 79th Cannes Film Fest has passed its halfway mark and is barreling toward its conclusion this weekend. Taking a look at the metrics from Screen Daily, Ioncinema and Cannes-ratings.org, here are the films that seem to be at the forefront critically (*** indicates that the film is on my TFF watch list):
From Screen Daily (films in Palme competition with a better than 2.5 rating on a four point scale):
1) Fatherland 3.3***
2) All of a Sudden 3.1***
3) Paper Tiger 2.8***
3) Hope 2.8***
5) Naji Notes 2.5
https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=7d45952f-7ff1-4ba7-b98c-78b6cf24da1e
From Ioncinema (films in Palme competition with a better than 3.0 rating on a five point scale):
1) Fatherland 3.7***
2) Fjord 3.5***
3) All of a Sudden 3.3***
4) Paper Tiger 3.2***
4) The Beloved 3.2
6) Hope 3.1***
https://www.ioncinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-cannes-grid-fjord.jpg
From Cannes-ratings.org (films in Palme competition with a better than 7.0 rating on a 10 point scale and a minimum of 8 reviews):
1) Fjord 7.81***
2) Bitter Christmas 7.53***
3) All of a Sudden 7.24***
3) The Beloved 7.24
Of special note is the hugely favorable critical reception to Club Kid from the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. It has a stellar 8.43 rating to lead all films in any section of the fest. News broke on Tuesday that the film had been picked up for U.S. distribution by A24 after a bidding war that included: Netflix, Searchlight, Focus Features and MUBI according to
this story from Variety.
The critical reception, the players vying for the film and the ultimate winning bid is enough to make me pay attention to it as a possible TFF selection. Stay tuned.
Club Kid is a first feature for director/writer Jordan Firstman. . The IMDb description is:
"A washed-up New York party promoter is forced to turn his life around when an unexpected visitor arrives."
https://cannes-ratings.org/
According to Kalshi (as of yesterday), Minotaur has the best odds to win the Palme followed by All of a Sudden and Fatherland.
SOME BUZZ FOR EISENBERG
Spooking around the interwebs yesterday I came across the news that what has been referred to as "The Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy now has an actual title: No One Cares. It also seems that the film has been screened at Cannes and it seems that the screening went well. So says World of Reel.
WOR describes the film as follows:
"Starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, with Eisenberg also appearing briefly, “No One Cares” is set in “the high-stakes world of community theater,” and follows a shy woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical."
Giamatti plays the director of the community theater production. I think it sounds great and I have had it on my TFF #53 watch list for some time mostly because Eisenberg screened A Real Pain at TFF in 2024. That seemed to work out fairly well. The film is being distributed by A24 which doesn't hurt. Additionally WOR writes:
"A24 is positioning the film for a fall premiere, potentially at the Telluride Film Festival and then at the Toronto International Film Festival. An Oscar campaign will likely be mounted for all key players involved."
MIKE LEIGH HAS A TITLE
Another "Untitled Project" has an actual title and that's the next film from director Mike Leigh. The name: Tender Loving Care. Past that we know almost nothing about the project. You can likely glean a bit of info from what IMDb still lists as "Untitled 2025 Mike Leigh Project" which we assume is the same thing as the newly christened Tender Loving Care.
https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt35638092/details
The IMDb entry reveals that Bleeker Street is the U.S. distributor.
Considering Leigh's frequent stops at TFF over the years (Secrets and Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year and others) you have to believe there's a decent chance that if it's ready, Tender Loving Care has a decent shot to play TFF #53.
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