The official selections for the 2009 edition of the Cannes Festival were announced today - Director's Fortnight announcements will be coming tomorrow - and it's a pretty staggering selection, featuring new films from Sam Raimi, Ang Lee, Lars Von Trier, Johnnie To, Park Chan Wook, Gaspar Noe, Jan Kounen, Bong Joon Ho, Pen-En Ratanaruang and the proverbial more, more, more. Check the complete list below the break!
Festival de Cannes
Opening Film
"Up"
Director: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, U.S.
Closing Film
"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky"
Director: Jan Kounen, France
In Competition
"Bright Star"
Director: Jane Campion, Australia-U.K.-France
"Spring Fever"
Director: Lou Ye, China-France
"Antichrist"
Director: Lars von Trier, Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy
"Enter the Void"
Director: Gaspar Noe, France
"Face"
Director: Tsai Ming-liang, France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium
"Les herbes folles"
Director: Alain Resnais, France-Italy
"In the Beginning"
Director: Xavier Giannoli, France
"A Prophet"
Director: Jacques Audiard, France
"The White Ribbon"
Director: Michael Haneke, Germany-Austria-France
"Vengeance"
Director: Johnnie To, Hong Kong-France-U.S.
"The Time That Remains"
Director: Elia Suleiman, Israel-France-Belgium-Italy
"Vincere"
Director: Marco Bellocchio, Italy-France
"Kinatay"
Director: Brillante Mendoza, Philippines
"Thirst"
Director: Park Chan-wook, South Korea-U.S.
"Broken Embraces"
Director: Pedro Almodovar, Spain
"Map of the Sounds of Tokyo"
Director: Isabel Coixet, Spain
"Fish Tank"
Director: Andrea Arnold, U.K.-Netherlands
"Looking for Eric"
Director: Ken Loach, U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy
"Inglourious Basterds"
Director: Quentin Tarantino, U.S.
"Taking Woodstock"
Director: Ang Lee, U.S.
Out Of Competition
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"
Director: Terry Gilliam, Canada-France
"The Army of Crime"
Director: Robert Guediguian, France
"Agora"
Director: Alejandro Amenabar, Spain
Midnight Screenings
"A Town Called Panic"
Director: Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Belgium
"Ne te retourne pas"
Director: Marina de Van, France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy
"Drag Me to Hell"
Director: Sam Raimi, U.S.
Special Screenings
"Petition"
Director: Zhao Liang, China
"L'epine dans le coeur"
Director: Michel Gondry, France
"Min ye"
Director: Souleyumane Cisse, France-Mali
"Jaffa"
Director: Keren Yedaya, Israel-France-Germany
"Manila"
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin, Philippines
"My Neighbor, My Killer"
Director: Anne Aghion, U.S
Un Certain Regard
"Samson & Delilah"
Director: Warwick Thornton Australia
"Adrift"
Director: Heitor Dhalia Brazil
"The Wind Journeys"
Director: Ciro Guerra, Colombia
"Demain des l'aube"
Director: Denis Dercourt, France
"Irene"
Director: Alain Cavalier, France
"Independance"
Director: Raya Martin, Philippines-France-Germany
"Le Pere de mes enfants"
Director: Mia Hansen-Love, France-Germany
"Dogtooth"
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece
"Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats"
Director: Bahman Ghobadi Iran
Eyes Wide Open"
Director: Haim Tabakman, Israel
"Mother"
Director: Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
"The Silent Army"
Director: Jean van de Velde, Netherlands
"To Die Like a Man"
Director: Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal
"Police, Adjective"
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania
"Tales from the Golden Age"
Directors: Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru, Romania
"Tale in the Darkness"
Director: Nikolay Khomeriki, Russia
"Tzar"
Director: Pavel Lounguine, Russia-France
"Nymph"
Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand
"Precious"
Lee Daniels, U.S.
Oh my god ! PANIQUE AU VILLAGE at Cannes ! This is an awesome line-up, much more exciting than the one we got last year. So many movies to see, it's insane.
Definitely a killer line-up. I wasn't even aware til now that Ratanaruang had a new film coming out.
wow, nice line up indeed. I was a bit surprised that Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death wasnt in there considering all the good stuff I've been hearing about it
Cannes is in May but chances are all teh big titles there will aim for North American premiere in Toronto in September and won't be seen on these shores at all before then.
“A Town Called Panic”
Director: Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Belgium
WANT!!!!
NYAFF starts on 6/19 this year. We desperately tried to get THIRST, even offering it our opening night slot, but were turned down despite it already having a domestic distributor here. I think Focus Films doesn't have much of an idea what to do with it at this point, nor a release date. I'm hoping it doesn't wind up going direct to DVD in 18 months, but I'm getting that old feeling again...
sigh.... agreed. What I expect of Thirst is that I'll get an HK dvd in August and illegally show it at bar/theater where I'm at. Just like I did with Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and dozens of other films.... shhhh. don't tell anyone.
Anyhow, I almost forget to ask, Are we going to get to see some actual footage from Gasper Noe's Enter the Void soon?
killer line-up!
I thought Lou Ye was banned from filmmaking in China!?
I'm still a bit shellshocked to see the Dutch "Marco Borsato" movie in there!
Marco Borsato is a VERY famous Dutch crooner who had his acting debut last year in the film "Wit Licht" (which translates as "White Light"). Although reviews praised his performance and the fans flocked to the cinemas in droves, everyone else gave the film a wide berth.
A lot of people thought it pretty tasteless that the heartbreaking topic of Africa's child-soldiers was used to fuel a star-vehicle for Mr. Borsato.
Now, out of over 5000 entries, this very same film is picked for Cannes?! Damn!
They quickly renamed it to "The Silent Army", referring to the current Ugandan rebel army on which the film is based. This army is full of young children who are not allowed to sing or speak, hence the nick. The only time you can hear them is when they chant hymns while attacking villages for their leader, a Christian fanatic who wants to build an African empire based on the Ten Commandments. Sad but true, brrrrr...
I just heard director Jean van der Velde being interviewed on the Dutch radio,and he mentioned the movie was probably picked because in France NOBODY knows who Marco Borsato is, and therefore didn't bring any of that "luggage" with them to the film.
This is rather big news in The Netherlands: in over 25 years of participation, this is only the third or fourth time a Dutch movie actually made it into the Cannes selection...
I actually think this is a great Cannes line-up this year. Big ticket Asian films from Park Chan-Wook, Johnnie To, Tsai Ming-liang and Lou Ye are nothing to sneeze at. I'm especially excited about VENGEANCE since it's in competition and it might get some love since it's got French fave Johnny Hallyday in it.
Hmmm. Brilliante Mendoza.
I admire the tenacity of this weasel.
It's not the audience that's sneezing at that impressive lineup, it's the distributors. US audiences will never get the chance to sneeze.
There's two types of Asian film distributors in the US - the ones that know what's best to do with the films but can't afford to do it, and the ones that are clueless to the point of idiocy but have the money to handle these films properly if they were only inclined to do so, which they're apparently not - they frequently talk the talk but rarely walk the walk.
You'll often find the second sort of company pretending to be the first, particularly when they screw up something any fourth grader could have done correctly. I don't even need to mention any names. We know the drill by now.
Belgium is of course very proud that also "Panique au Village" aka “A Town Called Panic” will be screening at Cannes :)
but over at imdb.com there is strangly still not any mention of the film ...)
... and the 'Dutch speaking part' of the country is finally starting to catch up with this 'French speaking part cult' series now that the team behind the "cult" comedy show "In de Gloria" will be doing the Flemish dub (not that I will need it of course ...)
But we are also dissapointed that Jaco van Dormael won't be there with "Mr.Nobody" ..
... it seems he was only offered an "out-of-competion" screening, and so understandably turned down the offer...