Boots Riley Says Cannes Rejected Sorry To Bother You and I Love Boosters
Boots Riley said sorry to bother you was one of several projects Cannes passed on, while the festival chose The Idol over I’m a Virgo. The filmmaker made the comments after being asked why I Love Boosters premiered at SXSW instead of Cannes, putting three separate Riley projects in the same selection conversation.
Riley’s Cannes list
Riley wrote on X that Cannes did not pick Sorry To Bother You, I’m a Virgo, or I Love Boosters. He also said the festival picked The Idol over I’m a Virgo, a comparison that turns one selection decision into a broader record of how Cannes handled his work.
Sorry To Bother You premiered at Sundance in 2018 and received the Sundance Institute’s Vanguard Award. That gives Riley’s Cannes comments a sharper edge: one of the projects mentioned was already a festival title with an award attached, not an untested script.
I Love Boosters at 92%
I Love Boosters opened wide over the Memorial Day holiday frame with a roughly $20 million budget, making it Neon’s most expensive film it had ever produced. The surreal crime comedy was at 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and stars Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, Jason Ritter, Eric André and Alan Z.
That budget and cast list matter because they put real financial weight behind Riley’s newer work, not just his reputation from Sorry To Bother You. A film that expensive carries more industry scrutiny, and the 92% fresh mark suggests the project had the kind of critical support that often helps a title travel after release.
SXSW instead of Cannes
The specific friction in Riley’s post is selection power: Cannes can still say no to a filmmaker with a Sundance award, a cast that includes Palmer, Ackie and Stanfield, and a studio-backed release that went out wide for Memorial Day. Riley’s response was blunt enough to settle the issue without softening it: “Cannes didn’t pick Sorry To Bother You altho they picked other stuff that had been played in their home country. They picked The Idol over I’m A Virgo. They didn’t pick I Love Boosters. They just don’t like my stuff. All good”
For readers watching Riley’s next move, the practical takeaway is simple: he is already treating Cannes as a closed door and moving on to other launch points such as SXSW. That leaves I Love Boosters as the project carrying the most current business pressure, while the festival history around Sorry To Bother You and I’m a Virgo now reads like a pattern Riley is willing to say out loud.
