The movie line-up selected to feature in Cannes’08 was announced in a press-conference today. Cannes is among the oldest and most revered of film fests. Cinema buffs from all over the world wait for it with bated breath to view the new works of celebrated directors and discover fresh talents. Going through the list of previous Palm d’ Or winners is like flipping through a directory of the present, past and future greats of world cinema. This year the festival is scheduled to be held from 14th to 25th May. Sean Penn heads the jury, which has Alfonso Cuaron and Natalie Portman amongst its members.

Looking at the competition section, there are a number of familiar names. The Dardenne Brothers (Rosetta, The son, L’ Enfant) are back with Le Silence de Lorna, as is Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) with The Palermo Shooting. Atom Egoyan, who directed one of my favorite movies, The Sweet Hereafter , took a misstep with his last film , Where the truth lies. His name appears in the list with Adoration. Steven Soderberg’s twin biopics on Che Guevra, Guerrilla and The Argentine, will be unveiled and they will be competing for the top prize. Clint Eastwood, who appears to have obtained the midas touch when it comes to directing, is coming with his latest, Changeling. One of the movies to watch out for definitely is Synecdoche, New York, the directorial debut of the ridiculously talented scriptwriter, Charlie Kaufman. All of his previous three works, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have been mind-bending and utterly original. Let’s see if he can push the boundaries similarly when he directs. Some of the other famous names are Jia Zhangke, (Platform) known as one of the leading members of the sixth generation of Chinese directors and Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station).

The much-anticipated summer blockbuster, Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will premiere in the out of competition section as will Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring his current muse, Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz.

By the way the picture on the side is the official poster for the 61st Cannes. It is a photograph by David Lynch with a graphic design by Pierre Collier, a cinema poster artist.

The complete line-up is as given below:

IN COMPETITION
“24 City,” China, Jia Zhangke
“Adoration,” Canada, Atom Egoyan
“Changeling,” U.S., Clint Eastwood
“Che” (”The Argentine,” “Guerrilla,”) Spain, Steven Soderbergh
“Un Conte de noel,” France, Arnaud Desplechin
“Daydreams,” Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“Delta,” Germany-Hungary, Kornel Mundruczo
“Il Divo,” Paolo Sorrentino, Italy
“Gomorra,” Italy, Matteo Garrone
“La Frontiere de l’aube,” France, Philippe Garrel
“Leonera,” Argentina-South Korea, Pablo Trapero
“Linha de Passe,” Brazil, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas
“La Mujer sin cabeza,” Argentina, Lucrecia Martel
“My Magic,” Singapore, Eric Khoo
“The Palermo Shooting,” Germany, Wim Wenders
“Serbis,” Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
“The Silence of Lorna,” U.K.-France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
“Synecdoche, New York,” U.S., Charlie Kaufman
“Waltz With Bashir,” Israel, Ari Folman

OUT OF COMPETITION
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” U.S., Steven Spielberg
“Kung Fu Panda,” U.S., Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
“The Good, the Bad, the Weird,” South Korea, Kim Jee-woon
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” U.S.-Spain, Woody Allen

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“Maradona,” Spain-France, Emir Kusturica
“Surveillance,” U.S., Jennifer Lynch
“The Chaser,” South Korea, Na Hong-jin

SPECIAL SCREENNGS
“Ashes of Time Redux,” China, Wong Kar-wai
“Of Time and the City,” U.K., Terence Davies
“Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” U.S.-U.K., Marina Zenovich
“Sangue Pazzo” (Crazy Blood), Italy-France, Marco Tullio Giordana

SCREENING OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE JURY
“The Third Wave,” U.S., Alison Thompson

UN CERTAIN REGARD
“A festa da menina morta,” Brazil, Matheus Nachtergaele
“Afterschool,” U.S., Antonio Campos
“De Ofrivilliga,” Sweden, Ruben Ostlund
“Je veux voir,” France, Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
“Johnny Mad Dog,” France, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
“La vie moderne (profiles paysans)”, France, Raymond Depardon
“Los Bastardos,” Mexico, Amat Escalante
“Milh handha al-bahr,” (Salt of This Sea), Palestine, Annemarie Jacir
“O’ Horten,” Norway-Germany, Bent Hamer
“Soi Cowboy,” U.K., Thomas Clay
“Tin Che,” (Parking), Taiwan, Chung Mong-Hong
“Tokyo!,” France-Japan, Bong Joon-ho, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax
“Tokyo Sonata,” Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
“Tulpan,” Germany, Sergey Dvortsevoy
“Tyson,” U.S., James Toback
“Versailles,” France, Pierre Schoeller
“Wendy and Lucy,” U.S., Kelly Reichardt
“Wolke 9″ (Cloud Nine), Germany, Andreas Dresen
“Yi ban haishui, yi ban huoyan,” China, Fendou Liu

CINEFONDATION
“Ba Yue Shi Wu,” U.S., Jiang Xuan
“Blind Spot,” France, Johanna Bessiere, Cecile Dubois Herry, Simon Rouby, Nicolas Chauvelot, Olivier Clert, Yvon Jardel
“Et dans mon coeur, j’emporterai…,” Belgium, Yoon Sung-A
“Forbach,” France, Claire Burger
“Gata,” Russia, Diana Mkrtchyan
“Gestern in Eden,” Germany, Jan Speckenbach
“Himnon” (Anthem), Israel, Elad Keidan
“Illusion Dwellers,” U.K., Rob Ellender
“Interior. Scara de bloc,” Romania, Ciprian Alexandrescu
“Kestomerkitsijat,” Finland, Juho Kuosmanen
“The Maid,” U.S., Heidi Saman
“Naus,” Czech Republic, Lukas Glaser
“O Som E O Resto,” Brazil, Andre Lavaquial
“El Reloj,” Argentina, Marco Berger
“Shtika” (Silence), Israel, Hadar Morag
“Stop,” South Korea, Park Jae-ok
“This Is a Story About Ted and Alice,” U.S., Teressa Tunney

SHORTS IN COMPETITION
“411-Z,” Hungary, Daniel Erdelyi
“Buen Viaje” (Bon Voyage), Javier Palleiro, Guillermo Rocamora
“De Moins en Moins,” France, Melanie Laurent
“El Deseo” (The Desire), Mexico, Marie Benito
“Jerrycan,” Australia, Julius Avery
“Love You More,” U.K., Sam Taylor Wood
“Megatron,” Romania, Marian Crisan
“My Rabbit Hoppy,” Australia, Anthony Lucas

(Source: Official site of the Cannes Film Festival, http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html)

Popularity: 2% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!