'Pretend I'm Not Here' Heading to the 2025 Cannes Market

When they hear the phrase "Cannes Film Festival," most people picture A-list celebrities on red carpets and images of celebrity arrivals by boat to the premieres of films that may be considered for awards season in the fall. But there are actually two halves to the event: The Festival du Cannes, which is the competition screenings, the A-listers, the red carpet, the arrivals, the works. Then there is the Marché du Film, known colloquially as the Cannes Market. This is a very different competition where projects in need of funding and distributors are presented to investors. Some of them are already completed and just need a distributor, some are prepping to roll cameras, and this is the last-ditch effort to bring people on board. 

This year, among the films from the U.K. set to sell themselves come mid-May 2025, are Lily James' Photo Booth, Sally Hawkins' Pretend I'm Not Here, Marisa Abela's The Return of Stanley Atwell, and Werner Herzog's Bucking Fastard.

Covering the Cannes Market is no easy task, especially in the final days, as projects seem to crop up like mushrooms after rain. I want to emphasize: Half of the projects reportedly on the "Hot Ones" list never get made. Some are obviously super pie-in-the-sky stuff, vanity packages to make a star or director feel good, and can be tossed into the rubbish bin of failed dreams. (A five-film cycle with zero scripts written and no stars attached? Total vanity stuff.) Some are great ideas, but no one wants to invest in them, leaving the producers to find a different way to make their film. (Riz Ahmed's Hamlet comes to mind, but despite getting made and landing distribution, it still hasn't come out.)

However, for 2025, four U.K. (and U.K. actor-starring) films are on the list, two of which look likely to make it to theaters, most notably actor/director Werner Herzog's Bucking Fastard, which stars real-life British sister Kate and Rooney Mara in a dramatization of true story of inseparable twins Joan and Jean Holbrooke, who fall in love with the same man. The film marks the first time the two have appeared on screen together; Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. But the high-profile cast isn't the main reason we think this one will see theaters: it already started filming, and will arrive with a rough cut to show investors.

Another one that looks like it will be made is Photo Booth, which stars Downton Abbey's Lily James. The filming date is set for the fall, and Raffey Cassidy (The Brutalist) is set to co-star. James stars as Jean Bouchet, a renowned performance artist, struggling to conceive. When her husband confesses to a drunken one-night stand, who is now pregnant, Cassidy's Millie, Jean offers their home and financial support in exchange for the baby.

Then there are the less certain ones, The Return Of Stanley Atwell and Pretend I’m Not Here. Atwell stars red-hot actors Nicholas Galitzine (Mary & George) and Marisa Abela (Industry). Technically, it's a period piece about the return of a missing heir throwing an aristocratic family into chaos, written and directed by Black Mirror's Brian Welsh, but all the PR missives drop the name of Steven Soderbergh, which suggests this is less about selling it than making the latter director feel good.

Pretend I'm Not Here might get made due to being as American as it is British, though co-productions are not favored in the current climate. A World War II set comedy film about a couple who take in and hide a Jewish perfume salesman during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, it stars Sally Hawkins as the wife, with Martin Freeman and Matthew Brodrick as the husband and perfume saleman. Directed by British filmmaker Simon Bird, and adapted by Lisa Owens from Hans Keilson’s novella Comedy in a Minor Key, it claims to be "planning to film later in the year" without specifics. That being said, everyone loves a WWII period piece, and comedies are rare, so this could get scooped up easily.

The Marché du Film, aka the Cannes Market, will launch on Monday, May 13, the same day as the main festival. It runs a week shorter than the main event, ending on May 21, 2025.