CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION – 2026 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Critics’ Week)
After starring in Mia Hansen-Love’s Eden and producing and co-writing the Oscar-nominated Arco, the multi-talented Félix de Givry makes his hugely accomplished directorial debut with this tender and moving romantic fable following the unlikely love story between two lonely teenagers.
14-year old idealist Otto Vidal (Anatomy of a Fall’s breakout Milo Machado-Graner) has decided he has no place in the world. After years of being bullied and humiliated, he posts farewell letters to his mother and classmates and disappears, forcing his small Normandy town to grieve a boy it believes is gone… even if he isn’t. Several nights later, Otto is recognised lurking in the town outskirts by Léna (Jane Beever), a shy classmate who, rather than give him up, impulsively chooses to shelter him in a spare room at her mother’s guesthouse. A tender, secret bond slowly grows between these two solitary teens, both hovering between childhood and the adult lives that await them…
Gently echoing the French New Wave, with dreamy Super 16 cinematography by Tara-Jay Bangalter (son of Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter) and an original melodic score by César Award-winner Arnaud Toulon, GOODBYE, CRUEL WORLD beautifully captures the intense emotions of being young and invisible, and the tentative, transformative hope that comes when someone finally sees you.