Home-grown film-maker Boo Junfeng will be returning to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival with his second feature, Apprentice.

This was announced yesterday.

The film is part of the line-up in the Un Certain Regard section of the official selection and is eligible for the Prize Un Certain Regard in the festival, which takes place from May 11 to 22.

The section was introduced in 1978 and, each year, it presents "original and different" works.

Apprentice is a psychological drama about a correctional officer who befriends an executioner at the prison.

Boo, 32, tells The Straits Times: "It's fantastic. It's been a labour of love over the past five years and it's great to be able to premiere the film again at Cannes. Really looking forward to it."

His first feature, Sandcastle (2010) - a sensitive and assured coming-of-age drama - was part of International Critics' Week at Cannes in 2010.

Other films in this year's Un Certain Regard section include Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda's After The Storm and American actor-director Matt Ross' Captain Fantastic.

Boon Chan