Cannes 2021: this year’s most talked about films

‘I actually know the moment I became known. It was at the Cannes Film Festival, when they showed ‘The Virgin Spring.’ I walked into that theatre as one person, and I walked out as another.’

– The late Max von Sydow



After last year’s pandemic washout, 2021’s Cannes Film Festival is a bumper event, with a wealth of backlogged movies on offer for film-starved cineastes. This backlog may well be the reason for the appearance in multiple films at the festival from actors Charlotte Rampling (two), Tilda Swinton (three) and in particular Léa Seydoux, who has no less than four movies premiering in Cannes.

Here’s my personal selection of films playing at this year’s festival – both in and out of competition:

Val (2021) Amazon Prime Video from August 6

Playing out of competition, this documentary portrait of notoriously ‘difficult’ actor Val Kilmer (Heat, Tombstone, The Doors) promises to be a fascinating watch.

Collated from thousands of hours of Kilmer’s own home movies (onset and otherwise) by directors Ting Poo and Leo Scot, the movie aims to give us a rounded picture of the actor – warts and all.