Kristen Stewart’s long-awaited directorial debut The Chronology of Water received a warm reception at its world premiere in Cannes Friday night, with the crowd inside the Palais des Festivals greeting the film with a four-and-a-half-minute standing ovation.
An emotional Stewart embraced her actors with hugs and high-fives as the ovation carried on. She later bounded across the auditorium to give Cannes head Thierry Frémaux a long hug.
“I don’t have anything else to say; I left it all on the screen,” Stewart said in part. “Just thank you all for being here. Seriously, we finished the movie five minutes ago — it’s not even done. We got so lucky, and I’m so grateful to be here.”
She then gestured to her star, Imogen Poots, to take the mic, saying, “Truly, your body is the movie, I’m giving it to you.”
An emotional Poots obliged, saying only, “She’s the best director, and I hope you all liked the movie.”
(L-R) Kristen Stewart, Esmé Creed-Miles, Imogen Poots and Michael Epp of ‘The Chronology of Water.’
The project was produced by Scott Free Productions, with Ridley Scott among the producers, and was filmed in Latvia and Malta over six weeks in 2024. Stewart adapted Yuknavitch’s memoir herself with co-writer Andy Mingo, reportedly aiming to retain the fragmented, stream-of-consciousness quality of the original text. The film also stars Thora Birch, Earl Cave, Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon and Jim Belushi in supporting roles.
Stewart was characteristically candid and off-the-cuff when discussing the film with THR ahead of the premiere. “I cannot believe it,” she said about returning to the Côte d’Azur to present her first film as a feature filmmaker, before adding of the film, “this is my fucking first draft … We’re running in here half-dressed. But I’m into it.”
She joked that she hoped The Chronology of Water “crashes and burns” in Cannes, adding that making mistakes is “fucking hot.”
Stewart also said she wanted to direct well before her career as a major Hollywood actress began some 20 years ago. “I think I was nine years old,” she said of when the impulse to direct first hit her.
Inside the Debussy theater in Cannes Friday night, Stewart introduced the feature from the stage by saying, “I’d like to speak so plainly just for one second. This was a radical act of love. All I want to say, before everyone here engages with it with our minds and our bodies is that after eight years of memory making, this iteration is asking for nothing but to be seen and heard. And so my extreme gratitude goes to every mind and body who is sitting in this theater now that’s going to add to the experience and multiply it. The movie invites you to have at it.”
And she concluded her remarks with an intense thanks to Yuknavitch for creating the book that would spawn the feature: “Lydia, thank you for writing and spewing in the very face of fuck. Thank you for the trickle. Thank you for the gush. Thank you for everything. Now let’s rip off this bandaid and watch the fucking movie!”
Several major actors are debuting works as first-time directors at Cannes this year. Scarlett Johansson will unveil Eleanor the Great, starring 95-year-old screen favorite June Squibb, and Babygirl star Harris Dickinson — soon set to headline Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics for Sony — will premiere his feature drama, Urchin.
