CANNES@65: THE LINE-UP

IN COMPETITION: 

"Amour," Michael Haneke 

"The Angels' Share," Ken Loach 

"Baad el mawkeaa," Yousry Nasrallah 

"Beyond the Hills," Cristian Mungiu

"Cosmopolis," David Cronenberg
"Holy Motors," Leos Carax 

"The Hunt," Thomas Vinterberg 

"Killing Them Softly," Andrew Dominik 

"In Another Country," Hong Sang-soo 

"In the Fog," Sergei Loznitsa 

"Rust and Bone," Jacques Audiard 

"Lawless," John Hillcoat 

"Like Someone in Love," Abbas Kiarostami 

"Moonrise Kingdom," Wes Anderson (opening night film) 

"Mud," Jeff Nichols 

"On the Road," Walter Salles 

"The Paperboy," Lee Daniels

 "Paradies: Liebe," Ulrich Seidl 

"Post tenebras lux," Carlos Reygadas 

"Reality," Matteo Garrone

 "Rust and Bone," Jacques Audiard 

"Taste of Money," Im Sang-soo

 "You Haven't Seen Anything Yet," Alain Resnais 

CLOSING NIGHT FILM:
"Therese Desqueyroux," Claude Miller

OUT OF COMPETITION:
TV film "Hemingway & Gellhorn," Philip Kaufman (will premiere on HBO come June this year) "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, Conrad Vernon
"Me and You," Bernardo Bertolucci

UN CERTAIN REGARD :
 "7 Days in Havana," Benicio del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabio, Gaspar Noe, and Laurent Cantet
 "11.25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate," Koji Wakamatsu
 "Antiviral," Brandon Cronenberg (David's son)
 "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Benh Zeitlin
 "Confession of a Child of the Century," Sylvie Verheyde
 "Despues de Lucia, "Michel Franco
 "La Pirogue," Moussa Toure
 "La Playa," Juan Andres Arango
 "Laurence Anyways," Xavier Dolan
 "Le grand soir," Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
 "Les Chevaux de Dieu," Nabil Ayouch
 "Loving Without Reason," Joachim Lafosse
 "Miss Lovely," Ashim Ahluwalia
 "Mystery," Lou Ye "Student," Darezhan Omirbayev
 "Trois mondes," Catherine Corsini
 "White Elephant," Pablo Trapero

 MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:
 "Dracula 3D," Dario Argento
 "The Legend of Love & Sincerity," Japan, Takashi Miike

 SPECIAL SCREENINGS:
 "A musica segundo Tom Jobim, Nelson Pereira Dos Santos
 "The Central Park Five," Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
 "Der Mull im Garten Eden," Fatih Akin
 "Journal de France," Claudine Nougaret, Raymond Depardon
 "Les Invisibles," Sebastien Lifshitz
 "Mekong Hotel," Apichatpong Weerasethakul 
"Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir," Laurent Bouzereau
 "Villegas," Gonzalo Tobal

65th Cannes Film Festival: The Contenders

This year's official selection of the world's "most glamorous and most competitive" film fest is a cream-of-the-crop list of world class auteurs and newcomers.

On one hand, we have the newest offerings from previous Palme d'Or winners Abbas Kiarostami (1997's Taste of Cherry), Michael Haneke (2009's The White Ribbon), and politically minded Irish filmmaker Ken Loach (2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley). Also, French cinema heavyweights Jacques Audiard (2009's Grand Prix winner and Oscar nominee A Prophet), French nouvelle vague helmer Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; Mon Oncle d'Amerique; 2009's Wild Grass), and Leos Carax (1999's head-scratching Pola X and 1989's Juliette Binoche starrer Lovers on a Bridge) will launch their new works alongside Korean masters Hong Sang-soo (Woman in the Future of Man; A Tale of Cinema; 2010 Un Certain Regard winner HaHaHa; 2011's The Day He Arrives) and Im Sang-soo (2010's The Housemaid remake). Even the former jury head (and 1996 Special Jury Prize winner for Crash) David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) will premiere his latest project - the Robert Pattinson starrer Cosmopolis).

On the other horizon, contemporary filmmakers Lee Daniels (2009's Oscar winning Precious), Jeff Nichols (last year's apocalyptic drama Take Shelter), Andrew Dominik (the 2007 Brad Pitt starrer The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries; Central Station; 2007's Best Actress winner Linha de passe), Matteo Garrone (2008's Grand Prix honoree Gomorrah), and Cristian Mungiu (2007's Palme d'Or winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) will unveil their new projects; Daniels, Nichols, and Dominik (along with Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, Danish Dogme wunderkind Thomas Vinterberg, and Aussie helmer John Hillcoat of 2009's The Road) will vie for the Palme d'Or for the first time. (Filmmakers-provocateurs Carlos Reygadas of 2005's controversial Battle in Heaven and 2007 Jury Prize co-winner Silent Light), Ulrich Seidl of Dog Days and Import/Export fame,and Russia's Sergei Loznitsa - 2010's bleak character study My Joy, meanwhile, received their second and third Best Film nods respectively.) Expect lots of famous Hollywood faces both young (Rob. Pat.; Zac Efron in Daniels' The Paperboy; Kristen Stewart in Salles' Jack Kerouac adaptation On The Road), beautiful Oscar winning Best Actresses (Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy; Reese Witherspoon in Nichols' romance drama Mud; Marion Cotillard in Audiard's Rust and Bone); handsome (Brad Pitt in Dominik's Killing Them Softly; Matthew McConnaughey in Mud and Paperboy); and legendary (Oscar winner Juliette Binoche in Cosmopolis). Wes Anderson's (The Royal Tenenbaums; The Darjeeling Limited) star-studded Moonrise Kingdom (an official selection entry) will open the festival, while the late French director Claude Miller's final film Therese Desqueyroux will officially close the event. (2001's Palme d'Or winner The Son's Room) will head the Competition Jury.)  The only noticeable problem: there are no films directed by women in the competition! (Last year's line-up included four including first time contenders Julia Leigh and Lynne Ramsay.)

Beauty and talent (not to mention politics) indeed reign over the Riviera this year, the first to feature eight English language entries in the official competition. Bonne chance!

Cannes@65: The Real Deal

INFORMATION REPORT

TO: MR. BRIDGIE JAMES ROSENTHAL (AKA "DUSTIN") RE: 84TH OSCAR WINNERS AND LOSERS SIR: Herewith is the rundown of this year's 84th Annual Academy Awards: I. WINNERS: THE ARTIST - Best Picture; Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius; Best Actor in a Leading Role - Jean Dujardin (the first French actor to win the award); Best Music (Original Score) - Ludovic Bource; Best Costume Design - Mark Bridges HUGO - Best Art Direction; Best Cinematography; Best Sound Mixing; Best Sound Editing; Best Visual Effects THE IRON LADY - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Meryl Streep (third Oscar and 17th nomination); Best Make-up THE DESCENDANTS - Best Adapted Screenplay - Alexander Payne (second Oscar), Nat Faxon, and Jim Rush (of comedy series "Community") BEGINNERS - Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer (at 84 years old, the oldest acting Oscar winner) THE HELP - Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer A SEPARATION - Best Foreign Language Film (the first Iranian picture to win the award and so far the highest grossing foreign language box office release of all time, not to mention "critically acclaimed") THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Best Film Editing (from the same team behind last year's Oscar winning The Social Network - Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter) THE MUPPETS - Best Music (Original Song) II. LOSERS 1. Glenn Close - six acting nominations, no award yet. (A record tied with Deborah Kerr which is interesting since she presented the Hollywood legend with an Honorary Oscar in 1994) 2. No "love" for The Tree of Life (especially Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography, his fifth nod) 3. The show itself - too predictable winners, dull pacing, and a lifeless Billy Crystal. ACTION TAKEN: Total revamp of the show and some of its rules regarding nominations. For your information and reference.