Given all the sections at the Cannes Film Festival, when you tally it all up, there are probably some 70 or 80 films reviewed in total (in some years, we’ve reviewed over 50 movies). So, how do you stand out at all? Well, dazzle them, obviously, but it helps when you win a big award, too, especially if you’re an unknown commodity. This is what happened to writer/director Molly Manning Walker and her critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama, “How To Have Sex.”
Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section essentially means up-and-comers you may not know and new discoveries you should know. That’s where Walker herself and “How To Have Sex” fit in. While Walker is a well-regarded cinematographer—she shot the 2023 Sundance Film “Scrapper,” dozens of short films and music videos for Radiohead, A$AP Rocky, and James Blake, “How To Have Sex” is her feature-length debut (she’s directed three short films before that). Walker’s ‘Sex’ won the top award in the Un Certain Regard section, which surely sets her up for greater success and creative indie studios that want to work with her in the future.
Critics raved out of Cannes, and our reviewer called the film “an assured, fresh contribution to the recent array of promising British debuts. By bringing to the screen a conversation painfully reserved to private spaces built upon the frail structures of shame and guilt without ever losing the type of loving lightness one can only get through unwavering support, Molly Manning-Walker confidently steps out of the gate right foot forward.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
It’s supposed to be the best summer ever. Tara, Skye, and Em touch down at the Greek party resort of Malia for the vacation to end all vacations, the girl’s trip every British teenager ticks off at the cusp of adulthood. Tara, the last remaining virgin, is on a mission to change that, and her best friends are causing chaos right alongside her. The 16-year-old drinks and dances her way through the strip – with all its messy bars and grimy nightclubs – until she meets a couple of boys on the neighboring hotel balcony who she hopes might give her a summer to remember.
Making her debut feature with a vibrant, compassionate look at sex, friendship, consent, and the sweet smell of a boozy, sunburned summer holiday, director and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker (Scrapper, Good Thanks, You?) paints an exhilarating, moving, and painfully familiar portrait of young adulthood.
“How To Have Sex” stars Mia McKenna-Bruce (“Persuasion,” “Kindling”), Lara Peake (“Brave New World”), Shaun Thomas (“Ali & Ava”), Samuel Bottomley (“Somewhere Boy”), Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler.
MUBI pounced on the film after Cannes, and while they have not revealed a release date—just a “coming soon” tease—the indie movie streamer has released a new teaser trailer for the film, which definitely means it will arrive later this fall. Check out the teaser below.