Kristen Stewart Debuts First Film at Cannes, Talks Imogen Poots’ ‘BTE’

CANNES, France – Kristen Stewart is in her flow.

Stewart, no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival, has returned with her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water.” She also co-wrote the screenplay, which is based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 bestselling memoir.

When reading the book, Stewart said she knew by page 40 that she wanted to adapt it into a film. She began discussing the project in 2018—long before any of the production elements were in place.

“I tend to jump the gun and say things too early and share quickly,” she said, acknowledging that many films can take nearly a decade to complete. Stewart recognized early on that the project would be a difficult sell in today’s market. It’s “plot defiant,” she noted, and spans four decades. Still, she’s glad she took her time assembling the right team and striking the right tone.

Despite its unconventional structure, the film touches on themes of Olympic ambition, abuse, addiction, and bisexuality. Imogen Poots is Stewart’s star.

“It’s about orienting yourself in relation to your memories, and allowing that reorientation to be what defines you, and not the facts, not the things that happen to you,” Stewart explained. The film, she said, is about framing your own truth.

While the project may not be commercially driven, it addresses the often-hidden experiences of women, including both pleasure and pain.

Amid recent discussions around U.S. tariffs on films shot abroad, Stewart said budget constraints made it necessary to film in Europe.

“I did have to sort of throw a temper tantrum in order to get this done,” she admitted. Ultimately, the film was shot in Latvia on a modest budget.

Stewart was speaking at Breaking Through the Lens, a nonprofit established in 2018 to create funding opportunities for marginalized filmmakers. The group was formed after 82 female actors and directors stood on the steps of the Palais des Festivals to protest gender-based discrimination in the industry.

Reflecting on the film’s perspective, Stewart said it stems from a voice often underrepresented in cinema.

“It seems like difficult material because it’s full of secrets, because women have just been forced to hide everything that hurts, everything that feels good, pain and pleasure,” she said. Women’s stories deserve to be told, she added, and there should be nothing “crude” about subjects like menstruation and childbirth.

“The blood in our movie, it doesn’t come from wounds, it’s orifice sourced,” she said, dropping a few F-bombs and some descriptive words in the process. “It’s really important to feel comfortable and kind of proud of saying that, and not like, ‘Oh, did I just say something that’s gonna be put in a headline?’ Yes, absolutely. Put it in a headline, I’d love that.

“Imogen was just the only person that could play this part,” Stewart said. “She doesn’t have, like, big tits or anything, but she seems like she does. I’m like, she has ‘big tit energy.’ Like ‘big dick energy’ – BDE. She has BTE. I was like, you don’t, but somehow, I feel like you have big tits and you have to play this part.”

Stewart criticized the longstanding belief that directors must “pay their dues” or accumulate years of experience, calling it a male-driven standard.

“[It’s] a bulls—t fallacy… It’s a real male perspective, as if it’s this difficult thing to do. Anyone can make a movie if they have something to say,” she said.

“The Chronology of Water” was a late addition to the festival, selected for the Un Certain Regard lineup just two weeks before the event began. Submitting the film was “a super vulnerable experience” for Stewart as a first-time director. She encouraged other women to take similar creative risks and trust their instincts.

“If you’ve got a sneaking suspicion, it’s not sneaky. You’ve just been told to shut the f—k up for too long. It’s like, listen to yourself,” she said.

Stewart said she plans to direct another film and hopes to star in it as well. That, she added, will happen “soon.”