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Open minded award since 2010

The Queer Palm is Cannes Festival’s LGBT+ prize, created in 2010 by journalist Franck Finance-Madureira.

Each year, a jury chooses to reward, among Cannes festival’s official selection and its parallel sections, a short movie or a feature film dealing with LGBT+, challenging gender norms or feminist characters and topics.

Starting in 2023, the Queer Palm Lab will support, every year, 5 feature film projects from all around the world, by offering a one-year mentorship and a ten days long residency.

Launching of the call for applications : beginning of 2023.

The Queer Palm 2022 Guide

The Jury

© Christophe Archambault

Catherine Corsini – President of the Jury

Director (France)

Catherine Corini began her career in cinema with the desire to become an actress and followed theater classes in Paris, before gaining interest in script writing and directing. Her first feature film is called Poker, a thriller movie with Caroline Cellier and Pierre Arditi. She gained public attention with C’est Interdit d’Amour, where Nathalie Richard played a violent mother, she directed her again in Lovers, a movie that marked the first time her work was selected at Cannes Festival. Ever since, the director showcased three other movies at Cannes : La Répétition in 2001, Three Worlds in 2012 and The Divide in 2021, this former having won last year’s Queer Palm as well as the Out d’Or for artistic contribution, in addition to being nominated 6 times at the César ceremony. Before presiding the 2022 Queer Palm, she was President of the Jury of the Short Film competition in Cannes in 2004 and of the Caméra d’Or in 2016. An activist in her movies as well as in her daily life, the filmmaker always, throughout her career, committed herself in favor of queer cinema, but also against domestic violence or even xenophobia.

Djanis Bouzyani

Actor (France)

Born in Nanterre, Djanis Bouzyani received training as a dancer in Paris and Los Angeles and worked at the Crazy Horse’s artistic direction. In cinema, he started as an extra and in The Assault by Julien Leclercq. In 2015, he wrote and directed the short movie Burqarnaque starring Hafsia Herzy. Behind Hafsia’s camera, he interpreted the role of her best friend in her first feature film You Deserve a Lover in 2019. After an apparition in The Divide by Catherine Corsini, he was recently in Lisa Azuelos’ I Love America alongside Sophie Marceau.

© Guillaume Thomas

Marilou Duponchel

Journalist (France)

Marilou Duponchel is a movie critic at Les Inrockuptibles and at Trois Couleurs. After a year spent at the short movies committee at the Semaine de la Critique, she entered the feature films committee for the 2022 edition. She is the co-writer of an essay on cinema by Laurent Cantet, “Le sens du collectif”, published this year by Playlist Society Editions. She was also, last December, a member of the press jury of the Arcs Film Festival.

Stéphane Riethauser

Director (Switzerland)

Stéphane Riethauser was born in Geneva. Graduated a law degree at Geneva’s University. Teacher, LGBTQI activist, photographer, journalist, translator and director. In 2007, he launched his own production company, Lambda Prod. Ever since 2001, he’s been living and working between Berlin and Switzerland as an indie director and producer. His last movie, Madame, won a certain number of international prizes and was nominated as Best Documentary at the 2020 Swiss Film Award.

© Camilo Agudelo

Paul Struthers

Producer and programmer (Australia)

Paul Struthers is a producer, programmer, and consultant with roots in Scotland, Ghana, USA, and Australia. Co-founder of the ground-breaking « Programmers of Colour » Collective launched at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Paul was Festival Director for Mardi Gras Film Festival before heading to San Francisco as Frameline’s Director of Programming from 2017 to 2020. He serves on the International Feature programming team for Tribeca Film Festival and is a program consultant for the Sydney Film Festival.

Feature Films

Sélection officielle – En compétition

THE ALMOND TREE

by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

A year after being directed by Catherine Corsini in The Divide, a movie rewarded at the Queer Palm and the César Awards, Valeria Bruni Tedechi is coming back to Cannes as a director. At the end of the 80’s, Stella, Etienne and Adèle, all aged 20, made it their goal to get into the famous school created by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans at the théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. A turning point in their life is coming, guided by love, play acting, friendship but also their first significant tragedies.

TCHAIKOVSKY’S WIFE

by Kirill Serebrennikov

After several times being presented in Cannes, with movies like Leto and Petrov’s Flu that were presented at the main competition lineup, Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov now introduces us to Tchaikovski’s Wife, Antonina Miliukova’s biopic, a young, brilliant, better off lady, who married the composer Piotr Tchaïkovski : an unconditional though unrequited love…

Close

by Lukas Dhont

In 2018, the young Belgian director Lukas Dhont made a huge impression with his first feature film Girl, winning the Queer Palm, the Caméra d’Or and the Prix d’Interprétation for Viktor Polster at Un Certain Regard. Close deals with topics like companionship and responsibilities, through the lense of a friendship between two 13 years old boys, Léo and Rémi, whose connection crumbles due to an unthinkable event…

© Kris DEWITTE Menuet

PACIFICTION

by Albert Serra

On Tahiti Island, in French Polynesia, the Prefect of the French republic De Roller is a man that’s close to the people, during official receptions as well as more illicit gatherings. There’s a new rumor growing : a submarine has been sighted, whose presence would signify the resumption of the French nuclear tests.

Benoît Magimel, Sergi Lopez, Marc Susini and Laura Poulvet are all a part of this international cast.

Sélection officielle – Séance spéciale

RIPOSTE FEMINISTE

by Simon Depardon et Marie Perennès

Whether they’re from Brest, Saint-Etienne, Compiègne or even Marseille, their fights are all the same : defeat the sexism and street harassment they face journally and call out the public with collages of messages of support for the victims. The comedian Marina Foïs (The Divide, 2022 Queer Palm) lent her voice to the documentary.

© Palmeraie et désert/France 2 cinéma 2022

Sélection officielle – Séance de minuit

MOONAGE DAYDREAM

by Brett Morgen

After retracing the steps of Robert Evans, Kurt Cobain or even Jane Goodall, Brett Morgen paints a never seen before picture of David Bowie, by regrouping thousands of unseen images of the musician’s performances.

Cannes première

DODO

by Panos H. Koutras

A couple on the verge of bankruptcy is preparing itself to celebrate its daughter Sofia’s wedding with a rich heir. But when a dodo, an animal that has vanished over 300 years ago, makes an apparition, the line between reason and madness becomes blurred… leading to a situation that’s completely out of control. In 2014, the Greek director was nominated for the Queer Palm with Xenia, showcased at Un Certain Regard.

© Pyramides Films

IRMA VEP

by Olivier Assayas

Based on his own 1996 movie of the same name, director Olivier Assayas is now showcasing a TV show at Cannes : we follow the story of Mira, a movie star disenchanted by her career and a recent breakup, about to star in the remake of the classical French movie Les Vampires. But as the filming progresses, the actress and her character begin to merge.

CHRONIQUE D’UNE LIAISON PASSAGèRE

by Emmanuel Mouret

Two lovers commit to seeing each other for pleasure only, without ever falling in love. He’s a married man, she’s a single mother, their complicity is growing… Sandrine Kiberlain and Vincent Macaigne both star in this dramatic comedy.

Un certain regard

Burning Days

by Emin Alper

A young attorney general is transferred to the small town of Balkaya, in Turkey. His political beliefs inevitably bring him closer to Murat, owner of the local newspaper. Thus begins a dead end situation between sexual frustration and political isolation. This psychological thriller is director Emin Alper’s first movie showcased in Cannes.

© Memento Distribution – Gloria Films

Joyland

by Saim Sadiq

Joyland is Pakistani director Saim Sadiq’s first feature film. Having grown up in a patriarchal family, a young son secretly joins an erotic dancing theatre troup and falls in love with a transgender artist : this blooming relationship carries out a desire of rebellion to all of his family…

THE BLUE CAFTAN

by Maryam Touzani

Halim and Mina, a Moroccan couple, own a traditional caftan shop, in Salé’s medina quarter. The couple lives with the secret of Halim’s homosexuality, but the arrival of a young apprentice as well as Mina’s disease will disturb their daily lives… This is Maryam Touzani’s second feature film, after Adam, presented at Un Certain Regard and selected for the 2019 Queer Palm.

RODEO

by Lola Quivoron

Julia, a young solitary woman that dropped out of school, meets Kaïs and his gang of bikers, who are used to realizing stunts and burglaries. She gradually starts to integrate into this band of marginals, mostly men, until an incident occurs, accompanied by threats that question her place in this group. This is Lola Quivoron’s first feature film, she previously worked with Raphaël Vandenbussche, director of photography on My Best Part, directed by Nicolas Maury, president of the 2021 Queer Palm.

QUINZAINE DES RéALISATEURS

WILL-O’-THE-WISP

by João Pedro Rodrigues

President of the Jury of the 2013 Queer Palm, revealed by his first feature film O Fantasma or more recently The Ornithologist, the Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues is coming back to Cannes, thirteen years after the presentation, in 2009, of To Die like a Man at Un certain regard. His new movie, the musical Will-O’-The’-Wisp, confirms his singular and queer vision on contemporary cinema. The story of a king on his deathbed in 2069, an erotic year, where an old song brings back some distant memories : the desire to become a fireman, but also the reminiscing of prince Alfredo and his meeting with Alfonso…

A MALE

by Fabián Hernández

In Colombia, Carlos, a 16 years old boy, lives in a boarding school. He has to go through a rite of passage in order to become a man, dictated by social and moral norms that impose him a certain type of masculinity, all of that in a hostile and macho environment : the streets of a Bogota slum and the spirale of urban violence. But in private, Carlos explores his sensibility and fragility, something that “real men” cannot show… This is Fabián Hernández’s first feature film.

© Medio De Contención Producciones / In Vivo Films

CONTINENTAL DRIFT (SOUTH)

by Lionel Baier

Nathalie Adler is on a mission for the EU in Sicily : tasked with the organization of Emmanuel Macron’s and Angela Merkel’s upcoming visit, she hadn’t anticipated the arrival of her son Albert, an activist working for an NGO, who had cut ties with her for the last few years… igniting an explosive reunion at the heart of this diplomatic journey. The Swiss Lionel Baier gathered a French, Canadian and Swiss cast including Isabelle Carré, Théodore Pellerin and Ursina Lardi.

THE FIVE DEVILS

by Léa Mysius

Vicky, a young, solitary and marginal girl, has a special gift : she can reproduce all the scents that she smells, scents that she collects in labeled jars, including the one of her mother Joanne. But when Julia, her father’s sister, arrives into her life, the creation of her scent carries her into dark and magical memories where she discovers the secrets of her village… and of her own existence. Léa Mysius showcased her first movie, Ava, at the Semaine de la Critique in 2017 and co-wrote many scenarios, including The Stars at Noon by Claire Denis or Paris, 13th District by Jacques Audiard with the help of Céline Sciamma, winner of the 2019 Queer Palm with Portrait of a Lady on Fire.