Analysis: “Abbasi was responsible for one of the festival’s most interesting press conferences”

Magnus von Horn’s Danish film The Girl with the Needle received good reviews after it was shown, but was without awards. So also Swedish-Iranian (Danes say Danish-Iranian) Ali Abbasi’s Danish-Canadian-Irish The Apprentice, about Donald Trump’s path from financial puppy to real estate magnate in New York in the 70s.

However, Abbasi was responsible for one of the festival’s most interesting press conferences, where he both tore down applause, quoted Kurt Vonnegut and explained that his film is not really about Trump, but about our social system.

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Can be pitted against Ruben Östlund

Both Abbasi and von Horn will surely return to Cannes and compete for the Palme d’Or. Both can be seen as veterans at this point.

If they finish their next project by 2026, they will be joined by the two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund, who has promised to come there and win his third straight Palme d’Or with his airplane film The entertainment system is down – with Kirstin Dunst and Keanu Reeves in the cast.

And why not also with Julia Thelin – who competed in the short film section before – and her feature film debut Mecenaten, which begins shooting this autumn, with rising star Carla Sehn in the lead role.

If Thelin manages to finish earlier, she can instead be joined by Tarik Saleh, who plans to end his Cairo trilogy in 2025 with Eagles of the republic.

Maybe Anna Croneman is right

So a Swedish Palme d’Or in the near future is not at all unthinkable. And Ruben Östlund, Sweden’s unabashed king of awkwardness, is getting more and more domestic competition.

Despite the fact that the awards did not go to the Swedish directors – Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann) who received the debut award for Armand is unfortunately Norwegian – it was still a good Swedish year in Cannes. Perhaps the Film Institute’s new CEO Anna Croneman is right, that there is a momentum for film right now.

Let’s hope so.