Cannes 2023; Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon opens today; but why is it out of competition?

It’s the first weekend of Cannes 2023 and already over the past week, cinephiles have been treated to two honorary Palme d'Ors for Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp’s polarising comeback, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal making the internet thirsty (and curious of the other cast members) and Cate Blanchett returning to her independent roots.

But today is another marquee day on the French Riviera with the glitterati out in force ahead of the red carpet premiere of Martin Scorsese’s new film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Bringing together Marty’s trusted band of frequent collaborators (Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro), the film also boasts recent Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser and Lily Gladstone, an actress of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage.

Based on the book by journalist David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon is based on the real life circumstances surrounding a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s—after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. After the Osage are awarded rights in court to the profits made from oil deposits found on their land, the Osage people prepare to receive the wealth to which they are legally entitled from sales of their oil deposits.

A regular at Cannes since debuting Mean Streets in 1973, the film marks Martin Scorsese’s twelfth premiere at the festival and the director already holds a Palme d’Or from the festival after screening Taxi Driver in 1976. But on this occasion, 47 years after his Grand Prix victory, the film is being screened out of competition.

So why has Martin Scorsese opted not to have his film in consideration for the Palme d’Or and what does it mean to be screened in competition? Is it because of the box office figures Scorsese commands being some kind of rule for not showing Killers of the Flower Moon in competition? Peopleworld are on hand again to answer some of your burning Cannes 2023 questions.

Why is Killers of the Flower Moon not showing “in competition”?

There are two reasons for this - one of personal preference while the other stems from rules regarding films being considered for the Palme d’Or.

The first reason is simple enough - Scorsese didn’t think that showing the film in competition would generate the same amount of buzz behind it as out of competition. Cannes director Thierry Fremaux revealed in April that it was invited to screen in competition. He said that he initially offered the film only an out of competition slot, since its worldwide digital distributor Apple, like most other streamers, won’t usually wait for a lengthy theatrical window prior to streaming them, as required by the fest for a competition slot.

That ultimately led to Scorsese and his team weighing up the options for the film, and decided that in light of the box office success of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick without having to be entered into competition that just screening the highly anticipated film at the festival would be enough to generate the buzz that hopefully translates to the box office. 

The second reason comes down to some of the rules that Cannes Film Festival have in place regarding films that are to be considered in the running for the Palme d’Or (the “in competition” category). Along with the usual running time and release window prerequisites that a number of film festivals follow, there is more of a tendency towards narrative driven works than your standard CGI laden affair. 

That is not to say that Cannes Film Festival has an issue with Hollywood blockbusters, and contrary to belief there has never been a year that a big budget film has been passed over by the festival; we just assumed given it’s in France that it would be more art-house/independent film. Sadly, we’ve fallen into the age-old trap of what assumptions do. Killers of the Flower Moon is scheduled to be released in select cinemas on October 6, 2023, before going wide in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. It is also scheduled for an unspecified streaming release on Apple TV+.