iW Fest Wish List: Cannes Lineup Preview? 40+ Big Names to Watch For By Eugene Hernandez, Brian Brooks, Peter Knegt, and Andy Lauer (April 3, 2009)
Brad Pitt in a scene from Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." Photo by Francois Duhamel.
EDITORS NOTE: The iW Cannes wish list was originally published earlier this month. The official selection of the festival is set to be announced on Thursday afternoon in Paris. This year’s Cannes Film Festival is shaping up to be an all-star fest, according to many insiders and observers. Quentin Tarantino’s latest, “Inglourious Basterds,” is among the high-profile roster of new films tipped for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The Universal/Weinstein Company World War II drama, starring Brad Pitt, finished shooting back in February and is on tap to screen in competition in Cannes, according to Variety. Pedro Almodovar’s “Abrazos Rotos,” already open in Spain and Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” are among the other notable titles tipped for the world’s most important film festival. The lineup for the 62nd annual event, set for May 13 - 24 in France, is expected to be announced on April 23rd. Cannes ‘09 will open with the Pixar Digital 3-D title, “UP,” as was recently announced. An animated 3D feature, “Up” was recently described by the festival as, “a comedy adventure in which 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen fulfils his dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America, only to discover that he has brought with him his biggest nightmare, a 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer stowaway.” Pixar parent Disney will open the film in the U.S. on May 29th and in France on July 29th. Insiders and journalists began speculating about the Cannes lineup even as the Berlin International Film Festival was still going on back in February, but the prognosticating has started to heat up, so indieWIRE—without any inside knowledge—has put together our own a three-page tip sheet of some 45 films that we hope will end up on the Cannes roster. And we figured, why not share it with our readers to get input and feedback. Based entirely on speculation and anticipation, among the biggest names on our current Cannes Film Festival wish list are Jane Campion with her new biopic about John Keats, “Bright Star,” Ken Loach and his comedy about French soccer star Eric Cantona, “Looking for Eric,” Todd Solondz’s long awaited “sequel” to “Happiness,” “Forgiveness,” and Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon.” Though once speculated to be joining the Cannes line up earlier in the year, Jim Jarmusch’s “The Limits of Control” seems unlikely for this year’s event afterall, with distributor Focus Features moving up the film’s U.S. release date recently to before Cannes begins May 13. Certainly not all of these titles will make their bow in Cannes, but with the many high profile directors with new work this year, the Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York fests don’t seem that far off. The Wish List “Los Abrazos rotos” (Broken Embraces) by Pedro Almodovar (Spain)
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I like films. Wish the good films come out soon.
Just noticed that Hong Sang-soo’s YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW comes out in Korea on May 14th. I doubt that date is a coincidence…
Some sources were tipping Bela Tarr’s TURIN HORSE, but it seems that’s just entered production. A more likely contender (not on the iW list) is THE TIME THAT REMAINS, the new film from Elia Suleiman.
And supposedly SOCIALISME isn’t finished yet, but reports are sketchy.
CERTIFIED COPY hasn’t even started shooting yet. Screen Daily gave a June 8th start date, which puts it over a year behind schedule.
Might Godard’s SOCIALISME be a possibility? It’s been in the works for awhile now and some production stills popped up about six months ago.
Thanks for the list. There are a couple of French titles here that I had overlooked, but with an April release in France, I doubt that Anne Fontaine’s Coco film will be part of the line-up. Humpday will definitely not be part of the main comp and/or UCR….leaving only the Director’s Fortnight as a host.