The Seed of the Sacred Fig is planted at Neon.
Has the Cannes film market been as erratic as this year’s festival offerings? While everyone takes sides in the Great Emilia Perez Discourse of 2024 or comes to terms with the rise of the cult of Megalopolis, we’ve been compiling a list of all the films that sold to distributors at the most prestigious festival of the year. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, directed by Iranian political exile Mohammad Rasoulof, is the only title in competition on the Croisette that sold thus far, planting at Neon for North American distribution. Otherwise, packages have sold for both upcoming films and completed projects, like The Entertainment System Is Down, a Kirsten Dunst–starring Ruben Östlund affair that once again contemplates how rich weirdos trapped on a moving vessel will act in trying times. It went for a vague eight figures to A24, the most specific amount paid yet. Below, all the titles picked up at Cannes 2024.
Festival Titles
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (director: Mohammad Rasoulof)
Distributor: Neon
As nationwide political protests intensify, an investigating judge at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court begins to suspect his wife and daughters are behind the mysterious disappearance of his gun. Paranoia surrounding the incident leads him to impose increasingly oppressive measures at home. The director behind the topical film fled to Europe from Iran this month after the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to flogging, eight years in prison, and more for making films and political statements that criticized the Iranian government.
Price: Undisclosed
Marché du Film Titles
The Entertainment System Is Down (director: Ruben Östlund)
Distributor: A24
Ruben Östlund’s latest social satire takes place on a long-haul flight on which the entertainment systems go dark, forcing an eccentric group of passengers to contend with the most frightening state of all: boredom. The film, still in production, stars Kirsten Dunst (Civil War) and Daniel Brühl (All Quiet on the Western Front) as an ill-fated married couple.
Price: Eight-figure deal
The Unknown (director: Arthur Harari)
Distributor: Neon
Anatomy of a Fall co-writer Arthur Harari will direct French phenom Léa Seydoux (Dune: Part Two) in his follow-up to the Oscar-winning film. Much like the title, details about the film are unknown, aside from the fact that it’s scheduled for completion in the first half of 2026.
Price: Undisclosed
Memoir of a Snail (director: Adam Elliot)
Distributor: IFC Films
Adam Elliot’s stop-motion drama is about an unlikely friendship between an eccentric elderly woman and a nerdy, depressed girl who collects ornamental snails and obsesses over romance novels while struggling with separation from her twin brother. Sarah Snook (Succession) leads the voice cast.
Price: Undisclosed
Tenzing (director: Jennifer Peedom)
Distributor: Apple
Willem Dafoe (Kinds of Kindness) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) will star in the biopic about the Nepalese mountaineer and his 1953 summit of Everest. Casting for the lead role of Tenzing Norgay is still underway. The film is scheduled for release in the spring of 2025.
Price: A “big deal”
Alpha (director: Julia Ducournau)
Distributor: Neon
Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to her Palme d’Or–winning Titane will be “genre-defying,” according to reports. Alpha will star Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian).
Price: Undisclosed
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