It’s surprising that Nicolas Winding Refn’s new film “Her Private Hell” will screen out of competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. Neon(film distributor) released the film’s first image this morning with the Cannes logo, but the stamp read ‘competition.
His films in 2013 and 2016 were part of the main competition. Before that, his 2011 film “Drive” also competed for the Palme d’Or and won him the Best Director award at Cannes. This time, his latest film will play in a non-competitive section.
Nicolas has kept the story under wraps. But a few details are out in the recent chat with Variety. The film will be in both English and Japanese, and set in Japan. He also promises plenty of glitter, sex, and violence in the movie.
Refn returns with “Her Private Hell,” his first feature film in over a decade. It stars Sophie Thatcher, a Critics’ Choice Super Award winner (2025), alongside Charles Melton, Kristine Froseth, and Havana Rose Liu.
The Neon Demon (2016), Refn’s last film, was a wildly divisive, body-horror acid trip with Elle Fanning that Cannes audiences greeted with a mixed response. where plot centers on Jesse, an ambitious beginner in Los Angeles, whose swift success breeds vanity and sparks hostility from envious colleagues determined to end her reign. Among Refn’s notable works are Drive, Bronson, and the Pusher trilogy.
Thatcher’s most recent major theatrical release, Companion (2025), is a sci-fi thriller featuring her as a self-aware confidant robot named Iris, and A24’s Heretic (2024), a chilling horror drama, cast her opposite Hugh Grant in the role of a Mormon.
