Director Ari Aster and cast members Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix pose on the red carpet as they leave following the screening of the film “Eddington” in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2025.
REUTERS
CANNES, France (Reuters) —The premiere of indie director Ari Aster’s latest film, “Eddington,” attracted a particularly glitzy crowd to the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet on Friday night, with Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix in attendance.
“Eddington” pits Pascal, who plays a small-town mayor, against Phoenix’s downbeat sheriff in an election campaign that kicks off as tensions over Coivd-19 mask policies and the Black Lives Matter protests were both reaching their apex in 2020.
Industry publication IndieWire gave the film set in the U.S. state of New Mexico top marks, calling it the “first truly modern American Western” while the BBC said the “deranged,” star-studded thriller would leave audiences breathless.
“Dune: Part Two” star Austin Butler, who plays a new-age guru, and Emma Stone of “La La Land,” who plays Phoenix’s wife, were also in Cannes for the film’s premiere on Friday, as were Phoenix’s partner, Rooney Mara, and actor Harris Dickinson, who is in Cannes to promote his directorial debut “Urchin.”
Like Aster’s three other features, “Eddington” will be released by independent distributor A24 and is set to hit theatres in the United States on July 18.
The new film marks the U.S. director’s second time working with Phoenix after 2023’s “Beau Is Afraid.” He made his name as the maker of elevated horror films “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”
