Kristen Stewart has been making a big splash at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with the premiere of her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water. She’s spoken about the film and her desire to make it many times over the years, but now that it’s done (…sort of), Stewart has been sharing far more about the chaotic journey she took to get here.
Here’s what we know!
​1. It’s based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir.
Imogen Poots stars as Yuknavitch, a "lifelong swimmer turned artist." The memoir takes a hard look at gender, sexuality, violence, grief, and addiction through a non-linear lens, with Stewart’s film promising to do the same, though allegedly taking major deviations from the source material.
"It’s just about how the things that happen to us live in our bodies and how we excavate, recreate, reframe things in order to survive," she told Vulture. "And also to define ourselves."
​2. Stewart herself has a hard time describing the film.
Kristen Stewart attends the "Bono: Stories Of Surrender" red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2025 in Cannes, France.
Monica Schipper/Getty Images
If the description above sounds vague and broad all at once, it’s because the story itself encompasses so much.
"People say, 'What’s the movie about?' and I’m like, 'Oh fuck, I don’t know — life?'" Stewart said while speaking at a Breaking Through the Lens event. "It’s about being in love. It’s about losing people. It’s about your parents fucking you up. It’s about writing. It’s about making art. It’s about how memory works. It’s about the ocean. It’s about the body. It’s about hating the body. It’s about loving the body. It’s about desire. And it’s also just this vibe."
​3. She sent Fiona Apple a letter asking to use her music.
Fiona Apple performs at The Fillmore on July 7, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan.
Scott Legato/Getty Images
Stewart has mentioned a few times now that she was so desperate to use Fiona Apple’s songs in her movie that she wrote her a letter — despite the two having never met.
"I think I said, 'What’s yours is mine now,'" she recalled during her interview with Vulture. "Like, 'I know that these are your songs, but they’re fucking mine. They belong to me, they really belong to this movie, and can we please show that?'"
​4. It took her eight years to get it made.
KStew fans have been listening to her talk about The Chronology of Water for nearly a decade now. She was determined to make this her directorial debut, even threatening to stop acting until she was able to make it happen.
​5. She was working on it up until five minutes before the premiere.
Kristen Stewart speaks at the Breaking Through The Lens Event at Hyde Beach by Campari during Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2025 in Cannes, France.
Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Breaking Through The Lens
Stewart told the Cannes audience that she finished the movie "five minutes before" — but even that isn’t quite the truth. She later toldVulture that they weren’t merely tweaking edits, but were — and are — actually still working on completing the film.
6. She says Imogen Poots has "Big Tit Energy."
Imogen Poots and Kristen Stewart attend the "Bono: Stories Of Surrender" red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2025 in Cannes, France.
Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images
Asked why she cast Poots in the lead rather than tackling the role herself, Stewart replied, "She doesn’t have big tits or anything, but she seems like she does."
"She has Big Tit Energy. It’s like Big Dick Energy — she has BTE," she continued. "I was like, I just feel like you have these big tits and you just have to play this part."
​7. She got tattoos to commemorate her experience on the film.
Kristen Stewart attends the "Bono: Stories Of Surrender" red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2025 in Cannes, France.
Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images
Stewart has mentioned two tattoos she got related to the film — one on her arm that says "Why," and one on her thigh that says "MINE."
"The coolest song in the movie is when she comes on her hand, smells it, wipes it on her fucking bicep, and goes, 'I didn’t know a girl body could do that. Shoot come,’" she explained. "And then this song comes on and it goes, 'Mine, mine, mine, mine.' And it’s just fucking mine."
​8. She’s likened the film’s pacing to that of a female orgasm.
Cannes
Forget the "three-act success story" that film audiences are accustomed to, Stewart says. The Chronology of Water currently has a run time of 2 hours and 8 minutes, because "it’s a serious fucking movie" that she believes deserves to take up that space.
"It’s like a female orgasm. It’s like, 'Almost, almost, almost. Stick with me, stick with me, stick with me!'" she said, adding, "I don’t think the movie is long."
As for when the rest of us will finally get to see Stewart's long-awaited directorial debut, that has yet to be determined. But we've waited eight years already — we can wait a little longer.
