‘Gazer’ Filmmakers Ryan J. Sloan & Ariella Mastroianni Talk Journey To Cannes Directors’ Fortnight: “That Was Our Dream From The Beginning” – Cannes Studio

Self-taught director Ryan J. Sloan is at the Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of his first feature Gazer in Directors’ Fortnight, with partner and longtime collaborator Ariella Mastroianni, who co-wrote, produced and stars in the film.

Mastroianni, whose grandfather according to family lore may have been a distant cousin of Marcello Mastroianni, plays a young mother with dyschronometria, a condition that warps her sense of time.

Unable to hold down regular work, she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman, unaware of the dark consequences that await.

The screenplay was sparked by Mastroianni’s reading of neurologist Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales detailing the cases of some of his patients and other reading on the subject.

Sloan says making film and being selected for Directors’ Fortnight is the fulfilment of a long-held dream.

“I’ve been working as an electrician since I was 13 for my father’s company,” he explains during an interview at the Deadline Studio in Cannes. ‘I always dreamed about being a director, but I was caught between the world of a working man and the world of an artist. I couldn’t afford to go to film school. It always felt like unattainable dream,” he recounts.

“I spent a lot of my life watching films, observing, taking it in and learning what I could… we started writing this and it was a type of story that I felt like if we didn’t do this now, I wouldn’t be able to go on living. It was now or never.”

Sloan and Mastroianni set about self-producing and making the film in their free time over the course of two years, with the support of friends.

“We were the hair and makeup, we were wardrobe, locations… I had to keep the same haircut for two years,” jokes Mastroianni.

Sloan sent the film to Directors’ Fortnight on the closing day for submissions, with a letter explaining his motivations and journey to completing the work.

Touched by the letter, the section’s artistic director Julien Rejl read out parts of the missive at the press conference unveiling the 2024 lineup in April.

“That was our dream from the beginning in 2020. When we started writing this film, Ariella mentioned that there was this section of Cannes called Directors’ Fortnight focused on directors, and she’s like, we should submit there. So, over the four-year period, we were aiming for that.”

On the back of the Directors’ Fortnight selection, Gazer has secured international sales with Paris-based Memento International and U.S. representation with UTA.

Sloan reveals that Gazer is the first part of his “Voyeur Trilogy.”

“The characters and the plot-lines will not continue on… but it all takes place in the same world,” he says. We even went as far in this film to put billboards up in the background of wide shots that kind of teased the next film. So we were very, very particular about where we want to go and what we want to do.”

The Deadline Studio is presented my Neom.