God bless us, every one! It’s April 17th, which means it’s the cinephile’s version of Christmas, because today sees the announcement of the line-up for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, still the biggest and most prestigious international fest in the calendar. Rumors have been flying for a few weeks now, and we’ve known for a while that the festival would open with Nicole Kidman-starrer “Grace Of Monaco,” in which the Oscar-winner plays legendary star-turned-princess Grace Kelly, but now the full festival line-up has been announced and it looks promising.
Among the hotly-tipped movies that have been confirmed this morning are David Cronenberg‘s inside-Hollywood tale “Maps To The Stars” starring Mia Wasikowska, Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Olivia Williams and Robert Pattinson, “The Rover,” “Animal Kingdom” helmer David Michod‘s apocalyptic follow-up, also starring Pattinson along with Guy Pearce and Scoot McNairy (which is a Midnight Screening rather than in-competition as expected), Olivier Assayas’ “Sils Maria,” with Juliette Binoche, Chloe Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and the Dardennes‘ “Two Days One Night” starring Marion Cotillard.
As for the rest of the line-up? Well, Bennett Miller‘s hotly-tipped “Foxcatcher,” starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, might be the hottest ticket, though a lot of eyes will be on “The Search,” Michel Hazavanicius‘ follow-up to his Oscar-winning “The Artist.” Cannes favorites like Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Nuri Bilge Ceylan are back with “Mr. Turner,” “Jimmy’s Hall” and the three-hour-plus “Winter Sleep” respectively while Tommy Lee Jones returns with Western “The Homesman,” and Jean-Luc Godard makes a long-awaited competition comeback with the 3D “Goodbye To Language.” Atom Egoyan and Ryan Reynolds are teaming up for “Captives,” while Xavier Dolan cracks the competition for the first time with “Mommy.” We’re also getting fashion biopic “Saint Laurent” starring Gaspard Ulliel and Lea Seydoux, Naomi Kawase‘s “Still The Water” and a new film from “Elena” helmer Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Meanwhile, DreamWorks blockbuster “How To Train Your Dragon 2” gets an out-of-competition screening, as does Zhang Yimou‘s new one “Coming Home.” Alongside “The Rover” in the Midnight Screening section is Mads Mikkelsen-starring Western “The Salvation” and “The Target,” a Korean remake of “Point Blank.” Meanwhile, Un Certain Regard looks strong, with Ryan Gosling‘s directorial debut “Lost River” probably the headliner, alongside “Amour Fou” from “Lourdes” director Jessica Hausner, Pascale Ferran‘s ‘Bird People” with “The Good Wife” star Josh Charles, and TIFF veteran “Eleanor Rigby” with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, among others.
There’s more to come still (at least one out-of-competition film to be announced next week, plus the Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight line-ups), but it all looks pretty good to us. The festival runs from May 14th to May 25th, and myself and Jessica Kiang have already started to fight about who’s going to see what.
Official Competition:
“Captives” (Canada) dir. Atom Egoyan – 1h43m
“Foxcatcher” (U.S.A.) dir. Bennett Miller – 2h10m
“Goodbye To Language” (France) dir. Jean-Luc Godard – 1h10m
“The Homesman” (U.S.A./France) dir. Tommy Lee Jones – 2h02m
“Jimmy’s Hall” (U.K) dir. Ken Loach – 1h46m
“Leviathan” (Russia) dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev – 2h20m
“Maps To The Stars” (Canada) dir. David Cronenberg –
“The Marvel” (Italy) dir. Alice Rohrwacher -1h50m
“Mommy” (Canada) dir. Xavier Dolan – 2h20m
“Mr. Turner” (U.K) dir. Mike Leigh – 2h29m
“Saint Laurent” (France) dir. Bertrand Bonello — 2h15m
“The Search” (France) dir. Michel Hazavanicius – 2h40m
“Sils Maria” (France) dir. Olivier Assayas – 2h03m
“Still The Water” (Japan) dir. Naomi Kawase – 1h50m
“Timbuktu” dir. Abderrahmane Sissako – 1h40m
“Two Days One Night” (Belgium) dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardennes – 1h35m
“Wild Tales” (Argentina) dir. Damian Szifron – 1h55m
“Winter Sleep” (Turkey) dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan – 3h16m
Opening Film:
“Grace Of Monaco” (U.S.A./France) dir. Olivier Dahan – 1h43m
Out Of Competition:
“Coming Home” (China) dir. Zhang Yimou – 1h51m
“How To Train Your Dragon 2” (U.S.A.) dir. Dean DeBlois – 1h45m
Un Certain Regard:
“Amour Fou” (dir. Jessica Hausner) – 1h36m
“Bird People” (dir. Pascale Ferran) – 2h07m
“The Blue Room” (dir. Mathieu Amalric) – 1h15m
“Charlie’s Country” (dir. Rolf De Heer) – 1h48m
“Eleanor Rigby” (dir. Ned Benson) – 1h59m
“Fantasia” (dir. Wang Chao) – 1h25m
“A Girl At My Door” (dir. July Jung) – 1h59m
“Harcheck mi Headro” (dir. Keren Yedaya) – 1h35m
“Jauja” (dir. Lisandro Alonso) – 1h41m
“Lost River” (dir. Ryan Gosling) – 1h45m
“The Misunderstood” (dir. Asia Argento) – 1h43m
“Party Girl” (dir. Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis) – 1h35m
“Run” (dir. Philippe Lacote) – 1h40m
“Salt Of The Earth” (dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado) – 1h40m
“Snow In Paradise” (dir. Andrew Hulme) – 1h28m
“Titli” (dir. Kanu Behl) – 2h04m
“Tourist” (dir. Ruben Ostlund) – 2h
“Unhappy Youth” (dir. Jaime Rosales) – 1h40m
“Xenia” (dir. Panos Koutras) – 2h03m
Midnight Screenings:
“The Rover” (dir. David Michod) – 1h40m
“The Salvation” (dir. Kristian Levring) – 1h30m
“The Target” (dir. Chang) – 1h39m
Special Screenings:
“Bridges Of Sarajevo” (anthology film) – 1h50m
“Caricaturists: Fantasies Of Democracy” (dir. Stephanie Valloatto) – 1h46m
“Eau Argentee” (dir. Mohammed Ossana) – 1h50m
“Les Gens Du Monde” (dir. Yves Yeuland) – 25m
“Maidan” (dir. Sergei Loznitsa) – 2h
“Red Army” (dir. Polsky Gabe) – 1h25m