Cannes kicks off next week, and with it the start of an awards conversation that looks likely to stretch until the 2020 Oscars. Judy, a new biopic of the singer Judy Garland is not officially screening on the Croisette, but timing of a first teaser trailer suggests its producers hope it to pick up buzz during the festival.

Directed by Rupert Goold and adapted from Peter Quilter’s play End of the Rainbow, the film unfolds during Garland’s final year before her death aged 47. In financial trouble and reeling from recent divorces, Garland embarks on a series of concerts in London during the winter of 1968.

In what appears to be a major career comeback, Renée Zellweger plays Garland, with Bella Ramsey as her second daughter, Lorna Luft, and Rufus Sewell as Lorna’s father, Sidney. Michael Gambon is Bernard Delfont, the impresario behind the tour; Finn Wittrock plays Mickey Deans, Garland’s fifth and final husband.

Garland’s eldest child, Liza Minelli, who is not portrayed on screen, said last year that she neither approved of nor sanctioned the film.

The film opens in the UK on 4 October.

•This article was amended on 10 May 2019 to clarify that Garland’s concerts were in London, and correct an editing error that meant an actor’s name was substituted for a character’s.