The Portuguese director’s film is up for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The film “Grand Tour” by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes is part of the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, which takes place in May in France, according to the schedule announced this Thursday.

Miguel Gomes is competing for the Palme d’Or for the first time, but the director’s cinema is a regular presence at Cannes, namely at the Director’s Fortnight, where he presented That Dear Month of August (2008). ), One Thousand and One Nights (2015) and The Otsogi Diaries (2021), with Maureen Fazendeiro.

Introducing the programme, festival general director Thierry Fremaux highlighted the “great visual virtuosity” of Miguel Gomez’s film, which stars Christa Alfayate and Gonzalo Waddington and is co-produced with Italy, France, Germany, China and Japan.

“Grand Tour” is also “the first Portuguese production to claim the Palme d’Or in 18 years,” producer Uma Pedra no Zapato recalled in a statement. 18 years ago, in 2006, the film “Youth in March” by Pedro Costa took part in the feature film competition.

The story takes place in the early 20th century. The story follows Edward, a civil servant of the British Empire, who runs away from his fiancée Molly on the day she arrives for her wedding.

“However, in his travels, panic gives way to melancholy. Contemplating the emptiness of his existence, the cowardly Edward wonders what happened to Molly… Defied by Edward’s impulses and determined to marry him, Molly follows the trail of her estranged fiancé through this Asian ‘Grand Tour,'” the synopsis reads. .

The film was shot at a studio in Rome, but was also filmed in Lisbon and various parts of Asia. Argued by Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo, Telmo Churro and Maureen Fazendeiro.

Currently, Miguel Gomes is working on the projects “Selvayaria” based on the book “Os sertões” by the Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha and “Cantiga” based on the illustrated book “Romance” (2013) by the French writer Blexbolex. .

Also in the official competition are Megapolis, Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitious independent project over 40, David Cronenberg’s Shrouds, Motel Destiny by Brazilian director Karim Ainouz, and The Bird. “, Andrea Arnold, “Emilia Perez” by Jacques Audiard, or “Types of Kindness” by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, again with Emma Stone.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14 to 25.