“The Chronology of Water” director Kristen Stewart and one of the film’s stars, indie rock icon Kim Gordon, will headline Breaking Through the Lens‘ annual gala at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, May 16.
Breaking Through the Lens is a global nonprofit dedicated to creating pathways to financing for women, LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized filmmakers working in front of and behind the camera.
As the organization returns to Cannes for an eighth consecutive year, Stewart and Gordon will sit for a fireside chat moderated by Variety, just before the world premiere of “The Chronology of Water” in the Un Certain Regard section. Stewart and Gordon will reflect on their experience working on the buzzy new film, dive into their creative process across mediums and discuss the importance of backing underrepresented filmmakers with proper funding.
Adapted from the bestselling 2011 memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch, Stewart’s adaptation of “The Chronology of Water” stars Imogen Poots as Lidia, an Olympic swimming hopeful who, brought up in an environment torn apart by violence and alcohol, seemed destined for self-destruction until she found freedom in the form of literature. The film, as described in the festival’s early synopsis, “follows Lidia’s journey to find her own voice in an exploration of how trauma can be transformed into art through repossessing our own bloody histories, particularly those uniquely experienced by the bodies of women and girls.” The cast also includes Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge and Gordon. In addition to directing, Stewart co-wrote the screen adaptation with Andy Mingo.
In her 2024 Variety cover story, Stewart opened up about the frustrating five-year journey to drum up the financing to make the film. “The current climate is a real, capital N ‘No’ for anything that has not been proven already,” she said at the time. Among the hurdles was that she hadn’t directed a feature yet, “so I lack experience and therefore, I lack credibility,” Stewart added, parroting what she’d been told, despite her decades as an Oscar-nominated and César-winning actor, plus directing short films and extended music videos.
Despite the naysayers, Stewart never wavered in her determination to get her passion project off the ground, ultimately shooting the movie over six weeks in Latvia and Malta last summer.
“We are so thrilled to return to Cannes to host the incomparable Kristen Stewart and Kim Gordon and to celebrate our BTTL Action Grant finalists,” said the organization’s co-founder and executive director, Daphne Schmon. Of the organization’s long-standing partnership with Campari, Schmon added, “Campari’s support at the festival supports our fight for a more equitable film industry.”
As Schmon noted, the Cannes event marks the culmination of BTTL’s annual Action Grant program. Currently in its third year, the initiative supports five filmmakers with a feature film in late-stage development in the sum of €10,000. The application is open to any filmmaker who experiences marginalization due to their gender, including women and LGBTQIA+ directors.
Those selected enter into a year-long fellowship overseen by a jury of industry professionals (which has previously included actor Diane Kruger and top executives from studios like Netflix, HBO Max, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate) to receive guidance at festival markets, attend curated financier meetings and experience other mentorship opportunities. Applications for the next cycle open at this year’s Cannes.
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