Why have giant wild boars suddenly begun roaming in packs through a rural village in the Ardennes? And where exactly has the bankrupt farmer Brun vanished to after murdering a local dignitary? The unlikely duo tasked with solving these bizarre mysteries are Fulda, a Corsican police officer suffering from depression, and Stephane, a psychologist on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As tensions escalate between farmers and wealthy landowners, their joint investigation spirals increasingly out of control, leaving chaos wherever they go. But the truth they eventually confront is beyond anything they could have imagined. With its bizarre, eccentric characters and inventive portrait of the French countryside, Sarah Arnold’s Too Many Beasts recalls the absurdist humor of Alain Guiraudie and the Coen brothers. At once a social film rooted in the realities of rural life, a wildly careening comedy of madness, and a gripping investigative drama that keeps the tension high, Too Many Beasts is one of the most delightful and wildly inventive feature debuts of the year.
Born in France, Sarah Arnold studied filmmaking at the École Supérieure d′Audiovisuel in Toulouse. Her first short, Leçon de ténèbres (2010), won the Jury Award at the Turin Film Festival, and she went on to build a solid career in short filmmaking with Totems (2014), which won the Golden Leopard in Locarno′s Swiss short film competition, and Store Policy (2020), which won the France Télévisions Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Her feature debut, Too Many Beasts, was invited to the 2026 Cannes Directors′ Fortnight, where it swept three prizes — the Europa Cinemas Label Award and the Directors′ Fortnight Audience Award, alongside a Caméra d′Or nomination — cementing her striking presence as a rising director who moves fluidly across genres.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
