Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut “The Chronology of Water” premiered at Cannes Film Festival to a just over four-minute standing ovation on Friday night — and left many in the crowd wiping their eyes.
Imogen Poots’ knockout performance was certainly a highlight of Stewart’s adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the same name, but just as notable was her directing style — raw, artsy and unflinching. Poots stars as Yuknavitch in Stewart’s non-linear take on the bestselling writer’s life, which includes shocking scenes of sexual abuse by her father and her spiral into drug use juxtaposed with the poetic salvation she found from being in water.
As the house lights went up, Stewart — dressed in a chic white short suit and matching baseball cap — hugged everyone in her cast and crew and directed the attention toward them. After kissing her wife Dylan Meyer, she allowed the spotlight to shine on her, accepting the mic from Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux for a short speech.
“This is an absolutely insane, surreal experience to be able to be here and watch this with all of you guys. We finished the movie like five minutes ago, it’s not even finished yet. We just slipped under this fucking shut door and goddamn it thank you,” Stewart said to Fremaux, before literally leaping into his arms.
The long-in-the-works passion project world premiered in the festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar, which this year also features debuts from fellow actors such as Scarlett Johansson (“Eleanor the Great”) and Harris Dickinson (“Urchin”). In addition to directing, Stewart co-wrote the film’s screenplay alongside Yuknavitch’s husband, Andy Mingo.
Stewart first announced the development of “Chronology of Water” in 2018. In her Variety cover story in January 2024, Stewart revealed that she had been struggling to finance the movie and would refuse to act in another film until she was able to get “The Chronology of Water” finished. She was able to do just that in summer 2024, when the movie filmed for six weeks in Latvia and Malta. The cast also includes Thora Birch, Earl Cave, Michael Epp, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon and Jim Belushi.
Thora Birch, left, Imogen Poots, Kristen Stewart and Kim Gordon at “The Chronology of Water” photocall at the Cannes Film Festival.
Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Speaking to Variety, Stewart was honest about her struggles to get the film financed. She said it was “near impossible” to raise money for a movie that was an original idea and not based on a proven genre or pre-existing IP.
“I think there’s an entire, yet-to-be-written female language,” Stewart said. “There’s a certain physicality to the type of film that I want to make that I think will be, in a slugline, really unattractive to quote-unquote ‘buyers,’ but in action, is entirely pervasively moving. That has just not been an easy sell. It’s not about the plot. It’s about someone self-Heimliching and contextualizing why that person has swallowed their own voice their whole life.”
Variety caught up with Stewart in April amid rumors that her movie would premiere at Cannes. The director said she was racing to finish post-production in order to make the festival lineup.
“Well, at this point, it’s a timing issue. The movie, it’s like crowning,” she said. “It’s one of those stories that you hear — every filmmaker that I covet has slipped under the closing doorway of making a certain deadline for the Cannes Film Festival. And I don’t know if I’m gonna be there yet I may. I may not be, but the movie is becoming itself in a way that feels so imminent, and so it’s like such a relief. It’s such an unbelievable relief. It’s been a long labor. It’s like having a baby.”
“The Chronology of Water” is seeking distribution out of Cannes.
