DUBAI: “In Waves” director Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated adaptation of AJ Dungo’s graphic novel will open the 65th edition of Cannes Critics’ Week. The film’s French-language version, which will screen alongside the English feature, features voice work by French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri.
Cannes Critics’ Week is a sidebar that runs alongside the main Cannes festival from May 13 - 21.
“In Waves” is one of 11 features that will run in the section.
Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu head up the voice cast for the English-language version, while Khoudri, Rio Vega, Paul Kirscher and Biran Ba can be heard in the French take.
Inspired by Dungo’s real-life love story, the film is set in California and follows a skateboarder and a surfer who find their relationship tested by illness.
Khoudri is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival and was on hand in the French Riviera in 2025 when her film “Eagles of the Republic” premiered at the 78th iteration of the event.
Directed by Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh, the film is the final chapter in his acclaimed “Cairo Trilogy,” which includes “The Nile Hilton Incident” (2017) and “Boy from Heaven” (2022), the latter earning him the award for best screenplay at Cannes.
Set in Cairo, “Eagles of the Republic” follows George El-Nabawi, a fading movie star who reluctantly agrees to play a role in a political biopic.
Khoudri, 33, first rose to prominence in her role as Nedjma in Mounia Meddour’s critically acclaimed drama “Papicha.” For her work in the film, she won the Orizzonti Award for best actress at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and she was nominated in the Cesar Awards’ most promising actress category.
Khoudri also starred in the 2019 mini-series “Les Sauvages” and in 2016’s “Blood on the Docks.”
She was also cast in Wes Anderson’s 2021 comedy “The French Dispatch” alongside Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson.
The actress also stars in Martin Bourboulon’s Afghanistan evacuation drama “In the Hell of Kabul: 13 Days, 13 Nights,” alongside Danish Bafta-winning “Borgen” star Sidse Babett Knudsen, Roschdy Zem (“Chocolat,” “Oh Mercy!”), and theater actor Christophe Montenez.
