Cannes 64 Official Selection: Winds of Change, Rookies, Four Women in Competition (UPDATED)

So we now know who will be walking up the red carpet steps of the Cannes Palais this year, and which world auteurs will be announced as they walk into the Theatre Lumiere. We already knew that Woody Allen is bringing Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen with opener Midnight in Paris on May 11, and that Croisette regular Gus Van Sant will open Un Certain Regard on May 12 with Restless, starring Mia Wasikowska.

The third Sony Pictures Classics entry is another Cannes veteran, Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, which reunites the director with Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon chasing the men who raped his daughter, which will screen late in the fest. The Spanish director’s films do not always play in competition: at the Paris press conference, Thierry Fremaux pointed out that this is Almodovar’s first world premiere at Cannes, because his films usually open first in Spain.

UPDATE: Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist is joining the Official Competition, which is now composed of 20 feature films and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena, will screen May 21 during the closing ceremony of Un Certain Regard. Jury updates are also below.

The full competition list is below (more at indieWIRE and Variety).

Outside the official selection, Disney will show Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, and separate from the festival altogether, Paramount will preview DreamWorks Animation’s King Fu Panda 2. Surprise American entries include Nicolas Winding Refn’s in-competition Drive (FilmDistrict), starring Ryan Gosling and Cary Mulligan; Jodie Foster’s out-of-competition The Beaver, which will likely bring Mel Gibson to the Croisette; and Un Certain Regard Sundance import Martha Marcy May Marlene, starring Elizabeth Olsen.

Returning to Cannes is Sean Penn, who stars in Terrence Malick’s long-awaited competition entry The Tree of Life (pictured below, also starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) as well as Paolo Sorrentino’s English-language This Must Be the Place (pictured). Fremaux pointed out that four films by women directors are in the competition for the first time, along with more young, untested filmmakers than usual: Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton, Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, Naomi Kawase’s Hanezo No Tsuki and Maiwenn’s Polisse. The diverse selection from 1715 films includes 49 films from 33 countries, and many films not shot in 35 mm, Fremaux said. He also made a “tweeting” joke.

Others of the 19 competition films include Italian auteur Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam, a drama about the Pope; The Kid With A Bike, directed by Palme d’or winners the brothers Dardenne; melancholy Dane Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst; French-set Le Havre, from Finnish Aki Kaurismaki, starring Jean-Pierre Leaud; and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Among the omissions, as suspected: films from Walter Salles (On the Road, Alexander Payne (The Descendants), Wong Kar Wai (The Grandmaster), Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights), David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method, and Marina Zenovich’s Roman Polanski follow-up, which is still a work in progress. All the more for the programmers in Venice and Toronto, who are rubbing their hands. Fremaux may add films to the line-up if they come through. UPDATE: Here’s The Playlist’s accounting of who was left out this year and David Hudson’s detailed report on the selection films at Mubi.

UPDATE: The Un Certain Regard jury is: Emir KUSTURICA, President – director, actor & musician (Serbia); Elodie BOUCHEZ, actress (France); Peter BRADSHAW, critic, The Guardian (United Kingdom); Geoffrey GILMORE, Chief Creative Office Tribeca Enterprises (USA); and Daniela MICHEL, Director of the Morelia Festival (Mexico).
 
The Caméra d’orJury is: BONG Joon-Ho, Président – Director, scriptwriter (South Corea); Danièle HEYMANN, critic (France); Eva VEZER, Head of Magyar Filmunio (Hungary); Robert ALAZRAKI, Cinematographer – AFC; Daniel COLLAND, manager Cinedia laboratory (FICAM); Jacques MAILLOT, director (SRF); Alex MASSON, critic (Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma).
The Director’s Fortnight will also include a number of other films not announced today.

11 to 22 may 2011
Opening Film:

Woody ALLEN MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Out of
Comp.
1h40

***

Pedro ALMODÓVAR LA PIEL QUE HABITO
(THE SKIN I LIVE IN)

2h
Bertrand BONELLO L’APOLLONIDE – SOUVENIRS DE LA MAISON CLOSE
(HOUSE OF TOLERANCE)

2h02
Alain CAVALIER PATER

1h45
Joseph CEDAR HEARAT SHULAYIM
(FOOTNOTE)

1h45
Nuri Bilge CEYLAN BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU’DA
(ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA)

2h30
Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE LE GAMIN AU VÉLO
(BOY WITH A BIKE)

1h27
Aki KAURISMÄKI LE HAVRE

1h43
Naomi KAWASE HANEZU NO TSUKI

1h31
Julia LEIGH SLEEPING BEAUTY

1st film 1h44
MAÏWENN POLISSE

2h14
Terrence MALICK THE TREE OF LIFE

2h18
Radu MIHAILEANU LA SOURCE DES FEMMES
(THE SOURCE)

2h15
Takashi MIIKE ICHIMEI
(HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI)

2h06
Nanni MORETTI HABEMUS PAPAM

1h42
Lynne RAMSAY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

1h50
Markus SCHLEINZER MICHAEL

1st film 1h34
Paolo SORRENTINO THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

1h58
Lars VON TRIER MELANCHOLIA

2h10
Nicolas WINDING REFN DRIVE

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Opening Film:

Gus VAN SANT RESTLESS

1h31
***

Bakur BAKURADZE THE HUNTER

1h50
Andreas DRESEN HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE

1h35
Bruno DUMONT HORS SATAN

1h50
Sean DURKIN MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

1st film 1h41
Robert GUÉDIGUIAN LES NEIGES DU KILIMANDJARO

1h30
Oliver HERMANUS SKOONHEID

1h38
HONG Sangsoo THE DAY HE ARRIVES

1h19
Cristián JIMÉNEZ BONSÁI
(BONSAÏ)

1h42
Eric KHOO TATSUMI

1h34
KIM Ki-duk ARIRANG

1h40
Nadine LABAKI ET MAINTENANT ON VA OU ?

1h50
Catalin MITULESCU LOVERBOY

1h35
NA Hong-jin YELLOW SEA

2h40
Gerardo NARANJO MISS BALA

1h53
Juliana ROJAS, Marco DUTRA TRABALHAR CANSA
(HARD LABOR)

1st film 1h40
Pierre SCHOELLER L’EXERCICE DE L’ETAT
(THE MINISTER)

1h55
Ivan SEN TOOMELAH

1h46
Joachim TRIER OSLO, AUGUST 31ST

1h35

OUT OF COMPETITION

11 to 22 may 2011

Out of Competition:

Xavier DURRINGER

Jodie FOSTER

LA CONQUÊTE

THE BEAVER

1h45

1h40
Michel HAZANAVICIUS

Rob MARSHALL
THE ARTIST

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

1h40

2h20

Midnight Screenings:

CHAN Peter Ho-Sun WU XIA

2h
Everardo GOUT

DIAS DE GRACIA
(DAYS OF GRACE)

1st film 2h13

Special Screenings:

Frederikke ASPÖCK LABRADOR

1st film 1h30
Rithy PANH LE MAÎTRE DES FORGES DE L’ENFER

1h45
Michael RADFORD MICHEL PETRUCCIANI

1h30
Christian ROUAUD TOUS AU LARZAC

2h

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