Carla Simón will fight for the Palme d'Or: Catalan cinema returns to Cannes with a bang.

BarcelonaPilgrimage, the new film by Carla Simón, will be in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the most illustrious section of the event and which allows you to fight for the Palme d'Or. The director ofSummer 1993, who once again draws inspiration from her family history to shape this story about a Catalan teenager who goes to Vigo to meet the family of her father, who died when she was little, will face the challenge of competing with the big names in modern cinema: the Dardenne brothers, Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Richard Linklater, Sergei Loznits, and, who also debuts in the official section with Sirado, starring the villainous Sergi López and produced by El Deseo, Pedro Almodóvar's production company, about a father who, accompanied by his son, searches for his daughter in the mountains of southern Morocco.

The entry of Pilgrimage in the official section of Cannes has double merit because, unlike the Pacification By Albert Serra, Simón's film lacks a French co-production, an almost obligatory requirement for unsung filmmakers to walk the festival's red carpet. Furthermore, this is the first selection of a Simón film at the French competition, which does not usually open the most exclusive doors to directors who have not previously participated in the parallel sections. This is the case of Albert Serra, who before competing for the Palme d'Or with Pacification He participated twice in the Fifteenth Cannes Directors' Festival (with Honor of chivalry and The Song of the Birds), in Un Certain Regard (with Freedom) and in the non-competitive official section (The death of Louis XIV). The same goes for Laxe, another filmmaker forged in the festival's parallel sections.

Making their debut directly in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival is only within the reach of a select few. In recent decades, it has become the largest platform for a filmmaker's international projection. This year, the selection committee reviewed 2,909 films from around the world, an absolute record in the festival's history. The last Catalan director to participate in the official competition was Albert Serra with Pacification (2023); Isabel Coixet did it before with Map of the sounds of Tokyo (2009), Marc Recha with Paz and her brother (2001), Agustí Villaronga with The Moon Child (1989), Vicente Aranda with El Lute 2: Walk or Die (1988), Antoni Ribas with The other image (1973) and Jaime Camino with Spain again (1969).

The great names of auteur cinema

As usual, the Cannes program brings together the best of international art-house cinema, which will present its latest works. Wes Anderson will premiere one of his star-studded films: The Phoenician Scheme, a spy comedy starring Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Scarlett Johansson, and Benedict Cumberbatch, among others. Richard Linklater will bring the highly anticipated New Wave, about the filming of Jean-Luc Godard's classic Breathless. Brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will offer Young mothers a portrait of the women housed in a shelter for teenage mothers, a project that inevitably recalls The maternal by Pilar Palomero.

Other films that will be in competition at Cannes are The Secret Agent, by Kleber Mendonca Filho; Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt; In Simple Accident, by Jafar Panahi; Dossier 137, by Dominik Moll; and Two Prosecutors, by Sergei Loznitsa. Out of competition, some of the highlights include Andrew Dominik's documentary on the U2 singer, Bonus: stories of surrender; Rebecca Zlotowski's comedy Private life starring Jodie Foster or Sylvian Chomet's tribute to the novelist Marcel Pagnol.

The Cannes Film Festival will hold its next edition from May 13 to 24. A few days ago it was announced that on May 14 Tom Cruise will present his film out of competition. Mission: Impossible: Final Judgment, the new installment of the saga Mission ImpossibleThe day before, during the opening ceremony, American actor Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d'Or for his lifetime achievement. And actress Juliette Binoche will be the president of this year's festival jury.