Cannes Film Festival 2008 – official selection will be unveiled on April 23
+ UPDATE
The official selection for the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) will be unveiled on Wednesday April 23, in the late morning, at the traditional press conference and rumours are circulating about the 2008 Palme d’Or contenders.
With just four days left before fest topper Thierry Fremaux is due to announce the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-28).
The list is subject to change, as Thierry Frémeaux’s team have still to evaluate numerous films that are scarcely completed.
The International Critics’ Week (SIC) will thus be the first to unveil its programme on Monday April 21, followed by the Directors’ Fortnight on Tuesday April 22.
On the same day, there will be a screening of Olivier Jahan’s documentary 40×15 (co-produced by MK2 and France 4), which retraces the history of the Cannes sidebar and includes interviews with around 30 filmmakers (including Michael Haneke, Stephen Frears, Théo Angelopoulos, Atom Egoyan).
One certainty is that the Hollywood presence will be significantly reduced from 2007 – “No Country for Old Men,” “Zodiac,” “Paranoid Park” and “Death Proof“.
At the moment, the only US competition entry is Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York,” in which Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a theater director.
Joining the previously announced “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in a special noncompeting premiere, on May 18, slot will be DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda,” starring Jack Black and directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson. Film bows May 15.
UPDATE 18/05
‘Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull’ First Reviews
Clint Eastwood’s film “The Changeling“, starring Angelina Jolie as a woman searching for her missing son in 1920s Los Angeles and “Synechdoche, New York,” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut.joins a competition list.
Steven Soderbergh, who took the top Cannes award in 1989 for “Sex, Lies and Videotape“, won a race against time to complete his four-hour epic “Che“, on the life of the revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara in time for the festival.
Unlike last year, when so many top directors had films in Cannes, the timing of the production cycle seems not to be working entirely to the American filmmakers.
Hollywood will also be repped on closing night with Barry Levinson’s “What Just Happened,” an industry insider tale starring Robert De Niro.
After its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, the Hollywood satire “What Just Happened?” will get a second chance at Cannes – closing night, but we are not sure yet because organizers said they would announce the movies that open and close the festival in a few days.
Robert De Niro stars an embattled Hollywood producer whose life falls apart during one turbulent week. In a life-imitating-art turn, the film’s climactic scene takes place at the Cannes Film Festival, with the producer’s fictional movie-within-a-movie opening the event.
“What Just Happened?” also stars Catherine Keener as a tough-as-nails studio chief and features a number of stars, including Sean Penn and Bruce Willis, playing themselves in self-parodying roles. Barry Levinson directs from an adaptation of “Into the Wild” producer Art Linson’s memoir.
The film generated strong buzz going into January’s Sundance Film Festival, and was expected to sell for a significant seven-figure sum. But the movie received a mixed critical.
Steven Soderbergh’s inclusion looks like a last-minute decision. He competes with two pic ”Che” bio – “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla”
Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” was also widely expected to make its international splash in Cannes.
UPDATE - ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ Trailer!
UPDATE 05/18 – Vicky Cristina Barcelona Reviews
On the other hand, numerous familiar names will be on hand with new works:
61st Cannes Film Festival – Sean Penn Is President Of The Jury
Sean Penn, American actor and director, is named President of the Jury of the 61st Festival de Cannes, due to take place from May 14 – 25, 2008.
“In the last few years it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide; increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving, and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun.”
”The Cannes Film Festival has long been the epicenter in the discovery of those new waves of filmmakers from all over the world. I very much look forward to participating in this year’s festival as President of the jury” Penn said.
