Boots Riley says Cannes passed on both Sorry To Bother You and his new film I Love Boosters, and that the festival also chose The Idol over I’m A Virgo. He said the snub was simple: “They just don’t like my stuff. All good.”
Riley made the comments after being asked on X why he decided to premiere I Love Boosters at SXSW instead of Cannes. The answer, at least from his side, was a reminder that the festival had already gone another way before. Sorry To Bother You premiered at Sundance in 2018 and went on to receive the Sundance Institute’s Vanguard Award, but Cannes did not select it. He said the same thing happened with I Love Boosters.
That history matters because I Love Boosters is not a small bet. The film stars Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Poppy Liu, with Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Jason Ritter, Eric André and Alan Z in the cast. It had a budget of roughly $20 million and was Neon’s most expensive film to date. It also opened wide over the Memorial Day holiday frame, giving Riley a larger release than the festival route that many filmmakers still chase.
The contrast is sharp. Cannes passed on a filmmaker whose earlier breakout drew a 92% fresh response and a Sundance award, then later passed again on his next film, according to Riley. Yet the new movie still moved forward on a broad commercial rollout, outside the festival circuit that he says kept turning him down. For Riley, the message is not subtle: Cannes has made its taste clear, and he has already moved on.
