“The Oscar-winning Iranian director behind ‘A Separation,’ ‘The Salesman’ and ‘The Past’ received a more muted reception than usual for his 2019 foray into international mystery, ‘Everybody Knows,’ ” wrote Rooney of the two-time Academy Award winner on The Hollywood Reporter website.

“Plot details of his new Farsi-language film are being kept under wraps, though the suspenseful narrative does appear to be a return to the home turf of the exquisitely intimate domestic dramas of internal family conflict that put him on the map,” added the American journalist.

This will be a fourth presence at the main competition for Farhadi, who won the Best Screenplay Award for ‘The Salesman’ in 2016.

Also on Rooney’s favorites list are ‘Annette,’ a musical by French director Leos Carax, Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Benedetta’, ‘Bergman Island’, by Mia Hansen-Løve, ‘Compartment No. 6’, directed by Finnish Juho Kuosmanen, and François Ozon’s ‘Everything Went Fine’.

Wes Anderson’s latest film, ‘The French Dispatch,’ ‘Memoria,’ by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, as well as Australian director Justin Kurzel’s ‘Nitram’ and Sean Baker’s ‘Red Rocket’ are the films to watch at Cannes, according to Rooney.

The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival will be opened with ‘Annette’ on July 6 in the French Riviera, with Nicolas Bedos’s ‘OSS 117: From Africa With Love’ bringing the curtain down on the event on July 17.

Twenty-four movies will participate at the main competition of the festival, which was canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The jury president for the this year’s main competition, American high-profile director Spike Lee, will be joined by French-Senegalese director and actress Mati Diop, Canadian-French singer and songwriter Mylène Farmer, American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, Austrian director Jessica Hausner, French actress and director Mélanie Laurent, Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, French actor Tahar Rahim, and South Korean actor Song Kang-ho in the jury.

American actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster will be awarded the Honorary Palme d’Or at the event.