Columbia Filmmakers Head to 2023 Cannes Film Festival

Five films from Columbia filmmakers will take part in the prestigious international 2023 Cannes Film Festival. They are: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Black Flies, Bury Me When I’m Dead, Imogene, and A Bright Sunny Day. This year marks the 76th edition of the festival, which will run May 16-27, 2023.

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival premiered three Best Picture nominees at the 2023 Academy Awards, including Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Elvis, and Incoming Cannes President Iris Knobloch hopes the 2023 edition of the festival will be another important launchpad for its selected films. 

“I’ve taken up my role at a time which is especially exciting for me, in which we are seeing a re-falling in love with, and a return to the cinema,” Knobloch told Deadline. “It’s as if this multiplication of individual screens has reinforced the desire for a shared experience in the cinema, which is not replaceable. The Cannes Film Festival can be proud for always having been the torch-bearer for this type of cinema.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, directed by James Mangold ’99 and starring Harrison Ford (Blade Runner, Star Wars, Witness), will have its world premiere at Cannes on May 18, 2023 ahead of its US theatrical release on June 30, 2023.

“In 1995, I was honored to come to Cannes with my first film [Heavy] as part of the Directors’ Fortnight," Mangold said. “Twenty-eight years later, I am proud to return with a slightly larger spectacle. My legendary collaborators and I are very excited to share a brand new and final Indiana Jones adventure.” The film is the fifth and final installment of the iconic “Indiana Jones” franchise. Watch the trailer for the film here.

In the Official Selection Competition lineup is the feature film Black Flies, directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. Alex Peace ’17 served as Production Supervisor of the film, which is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Shannon Burke. Set in the high-wire world of New York City, the film is a thriller that follows a first-year paramedic who is teamed up with a grizzled veteran-medic (played by Sean Penn). 

Two short films from Columbia filmmakers have also been selected to screen as part of the 26th edition of La Cinef. Imogene, directed by Katie Blair ’19, and A Bright Sunny Day, directed by Yupeng He ’20, were both selected from among 2000 films submitted by film schools from all around the world, and of the 16 films participating in La Cinef this year, the two films from Columbia alumni represent the only selections from US film schools. The La Cinef Jury, chaired by filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi, will give out three awards during a ceremony that will be followed by a screening of the winning films on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

Bury Me When I’m Dead, directed by Patrick Clement ’20, is one of the seven feature films selected for the Frontières Buyers Showcase, which presents works-in-progress or recently completed films seeking international distribution, festival selection and/or sales representation. In this new horror drama, after Henry fails to keep his wife’s dying wish, a series of tragic events leads him to believe she’s returned to get revenge.

The Buyers Showcase is part of the Marché du Film’s Frontières co-production market, the leading international industry initiative for genre film professionals. Organized by the Fantasia International Film Festival in collaboration with Marché du Film of the Festival de Cannes, Frontières connects genre filmmakers with industry professionals in an aim to promote co-production and collaboration. Frontières success stories include notable films such as Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016), The Void (Steven Kostanski & Jeremy Gillespie, 2016), Are We Not Cats (Xander Robin, 2016), and many more.

Click here for more information about the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.