Cannes Film Festival Rumours

The 62nd Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24, 2009) has almost finalised its programme that will be announced on April 23 at a press conference in Cannes. However, there are all sorts of speculations: According to Cine Europa, the festival is set to include an impressive list of directors who have previously won honours on the Croisette. Among the European titles are Looking for Eric by the UK’s Ken Loach, Antichrist by Denmark’s Lars von Trier, Broken Embraces [trailer, film focus] by Spain’s Pedro Almodovar, The White Tape by Austria’s Michael Haneke, Mr Nobody by Belgium’s Jaco van Dormael and Vincere by Italy’s Marco Bellocchio.

French Palme d’Or contenders include Alain Resnais’ Les Herbes Folles (“Wild Reeds”) and Bruno Dumont’s Hadewijch. Deliberations are underway to choose the third Gallic title from among the following: Jacques Audiard’s Un prophète (“A Prophet”), Denis Dercourt’s Demain dès l'aube... (“Tomorrow from Dawn”) and Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu’s Les Derniers Jours du Monde (“The Last Days of the World”), alongside outsider favourite In the Beginning by Xavier Giannoli.

The rest of the world will be represented in competition by Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [trailer], Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Todd Solondz’s Forgiveness, Jane Campion’s Bright Star, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains, Tsai Ming-liang’s Face and Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Air Doll.