Why is Hollywood missing from Cannes?

Hollywood won't be making it to Cannes this year.

The world's most important film festival kicks off on May 12 with a lineup of new movies from some of the most acclaimed filmmakers in global arthouse cinema — Pedro Almodovar, Asghar Farhadi, Pawel Pawlikowski, Cristian Mungiu — but not a single film from a US major studio. There'll be no red carpet spectacle to rival last year's premiere of "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning" or earlier Cannes launches like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Mad Max: Fury Road."

Is Cannes giving Hollywood the cold shoulder? Not exactly.

There are US films in the lineup. In the Competition section, Ira Sachs brings the musical fantasy "The Man I Love," starring Rami Malek, alongside James Gray's "Paper Tiger," with Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. Out of competition, John Travolta makes his directorial debut with "Propeller One-Way Night Coach," a passion project centered on aviation, and Andy Garcia directs and stars in the crime drama "Diamond."

What's missing are the big-budget studio tentpoles — the crowd-pleasing counterweight to Cannes' traditional diet of serious auteur cinema. The popcorn snack in-between the more filling movies. 

Studios grow wary of festival risk

It isn't just Cannes. The Berlin Film Festival in February was also notably devoid of studio fare, much to the disappointment of the city's star-watchers and celebrity-driven tabloids. Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle has suggested Hollywood majors are increasingly wary of premiering big films at festivals, concerned that a negative reception or an awkward press cycle could damage box office prospects months ahead of release.

She points in part to the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where Warner Bros. launched "Joker: Folie à Deux," Todd Phillips' musical follow-up to his billion-dollar hit "Joker." Critics were brutal. The sequel went on to earn around $200 million worldwide, well below expectations and its reported budget. Tepid reviews out of Cannes for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" may also have hurt that film's performance, making it, adjusted for inflation, the weakest entry in the adventure's franchise.

Politics are another factor. Major festivals have become flashpoints for protest and debate, with press conferences routinely veering into questions about Gaza, Trump and Iran. In Berlin this year, political tensions at times overshadowed discussion of the films themselves. For Hollywood studios, the risk of having stars or projects pulled into divisive global debates may simply outweigh the upside of a high-profile festival premiere.

Auteurs take center stage

Without the studios, Cannes this year is doubling down on international auteur cinema. Farhadi — a two-time Oscar winner for "A Separation" and "The Salesman" — returns with "Parallel Tales," a Paris-set drama featuring Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Cassel.

Spanish cinema's melodramatic master Almodovar is still hunting for his first Palme d'Or, Cannes' top prize, with "Bitter Christmas," a holiday drama about a woman being abandoned by her partner during the festive season; it's his seventh film running in the festival's main competition.

Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, long absent from the Croisette, is back with "Minotaur," the story of a businessman whose world collapses.

Laszlo Nemes returns with "Moulin," set in Nazi-occupied France, with Lars Eidinger portraying Klaus Barbie, the so-called "Butcher of Lyon." 

Pawlikowski brings "Fatherland," his Thomas Mann biopic starring Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller, while Belgian auteur Lukas Dhont follows up his Oscar-nominated "Close" with "Coward," set in the trenches of World War I.

Mungiu, who won the Palme d'Or with his debut "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," makes his English-language debut with "Fjord," pairing Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in a drama about a couple whose new life in rural Norway turns sour.

Germany is also back in the mix. After Mascha Schilinski's "Sound of Falling" took last year's Jury Prize, another German female auteur, Valeska Grisebach, enters Cannes' competition with "The Dreamed Adventure," her first feature since 2017's "Western," which won Cannes' Un Certain Regard prize. 

Out of competition, Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn arrives with "Her Private Hell," while in Un Certain Regard, up-and-coming American indie filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun presents "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," a queer slasher that is already generating buzz as a potential breakout.

Without Hollywood crowding the Croisette, Cannes this year looks less like a global marketing stage and more like what it was always meant to be: a showcase for the world's most distinctive filmmakers. 

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier