Nicolas Cage in The Surfer. Photo by Radek Ladczuk.

Lorcan Finnegan’s psychological thriller The Surfer, starring Academy Award^® winner Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario, Leaving Las Vegas), will premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in Official Selection for the Midnight Screenings section. Finnegan returns to Cannes after his sophomore feature Vivarium premiered in Critics’ Week in 2019.

The Surfer joins a stunning line-up of Official Selection films announced today in Paris, including Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, with George Miller’s epic Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth to premiere Out of Competition with a gala screening.

The Surfer joins a long legacy of classic Australian films premiering at Cannes including Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (1992), Moulin Rouge!(2001) and Elvis (2022), Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993), Fred Schepisi’s Evil Angels (1988), PJ Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding (1994), Stefan Elliot’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah (2009) and The New Boy (2023), Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires (2012) and Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown (2011) and Nitram (2021).

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Written by Thomas Martin, The Surfer is an intensely unnerving feature film shot in a single location in Yallingup in Western Australia. Alongside Cage, the film stars an impressive Australian ensemble cast including Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck), Nicholas Cassim (Mr Inbetween), Miranda Tapsell (The Dry), Alexander Bertrand (Australian Gangster), Justin Rosniak (Last King of the Cross), Rahel Romahn (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Finn Little (Yellowstone), and Charlotte Maggi (Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child on Fire).

When a man returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the US, he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates, he is brought right to the edge of his sanity and his entire identity is thrown into question.

The Surfer, an Australian/Irish Co-Production, is produced by Tea Shop Productions, Robert Connolly’s Arenamedia, Lovely Productions and Gramercy Park Media with support from Screenwest through the Western Australian Production Attraction Incentive.

North.Five.Six (formerly Mossbank) is handling international sales. In Australia, The Surfer will release as a Stan Original Film, in partnership with CinemaPlus and Madman Entertainment, who will be releasing the film theatrically in Australia and New Zealand.