David Cronenberg’s latest feature, The Shrouds, will make its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

The French film festival rolled out the lineup for its 77th edition on Thursday (April 11), with Winnipeg-born Guy Maddin’s co-directed comedy Rumours among the selection as an out of competition title. Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, a Canada/Ireland coproduction, is also in competition. French director Quentin Dupieux’s feature The Second Act will open the festival.

The Shrouds is written and directed by Cronenberg and marks the seventh film from Cronenberg to compete at Cannes, according to a news release.

The feature is produced by Martin Katz of Toronto’s Prospero Pictures, Saïd Ben Saïd of Paris-based SBS Productions and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent Productions, a subsidiary of the French luxury fashion brand. Sphere Films is the Canadian distributor.

The Shrouds was filmed in Toronto last year. It centres on a businessman who channels his grief over his late wife into the development of technology that allows people to watch their loved ones in their graves.

Leading the cast is Vincent Cassel (Black Swan; pictured), as well as Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker) and Sandrine Holt (House of Cards).

The film is produced in association with Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Eurimages and Canal+.

Abbasi’s The Apprentice is a biopic of former U.S. president Donald Trump, starring Sebastian Stan.

The film is produced by Daniel Bekerman of Toronto’s Scythia Films, Jacob Jarek of Copenhagen’s Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde of Dublin’s Tailored Films, and Abbasi and Louis Tisné of the Danish Film Institute.

Mongrel Media is the Canadian distributor.

Rumours is a Canada/German copro, written and directed by Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson.

The comedy feature is set at a G7 summit, where world leaders end up getting lost in the woods while putting together a statement on a global crisis. The cast includes Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander and Canada’s Roy Dupuis.

Rumours is produced by Liz Jarvis of Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, Philipp Kreuzer of Munich- and Berlin-based Maze Pictures and Lars Knudsen of U.S. prodco Square Peg. Executive producers include Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Ari Aster, Jörg Schulze and Phyllis Laing.

Distributors include Elevation Pictures for Canada, Bleecker Street for the U.S. and Plaion Pictures for Germany. Protagonist Pictures handles international sales.

Both The Shrouds and Rumours will have a theatrical release in Canada later this year.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14 to 25.

Image courtesy of Sphere Films