31/03/2023 - The US filmmaker will be stepping onto the Croisette for the first time since 1986 with an Apple Original title that is set to get a release in theatres

The first headliner has been confirmed for the 76^th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (16-27 May 2023), as Killers of the Flower Moon by US maestro Martin Scorsese will have its world premiere in the Official Selection on Saturday 20 May in the Grand Théâtre Lumière – although we don’t yet know whether the movie will be presented in or out of competition.

The filmmaker, who won the Palme d’Or in 1976 with Taxi Driver, has not been back in the Official Selection since After Hours (which scooped the Best Director Award in 1986). His return is symbolically all the more remarkable because of the fact that Killers of the Flower Moon (which stars such names as Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons) was produced by a platform (Apple Studios, in collaboration with Imperative Entertainment, Sikelia Productions and Appian Way), which has decided to bring the film out in movie theatres via Paramount Pictures (on 20 October in the USA, following a limited release on 6 October, and on 18 October in France) before it starts streaming it. As a reminder, since 2018, the Cannes Film Festival’s regulations have only allowed films to participate in the competition if they have secured distribution in French theatres. Cannes’ selection of Killers of the Flower Moon therefore marks a clear thawing of the relationship between the festival and platforms that are in the process of rethinking their launch strategies for films.

Written by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, and based on David Grann’s bestseller of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror.

The Official Selection of the 76^th Cannes Film Festival will be unveiled on 13 April, that of the Critics’ Week on 17 April and that of the Directors' Fortnight on 18 April.

(Translated from French)