The line up for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival has been announced, and it promises to be a rather interesting year on the Croissette. Quite a few Cannes-favourite directors return to the fold - Almodovar, Tarantino, Von Trier, To and Campion - but there are interesting films in the line-up from the likes of Terry Gilliam and Sam Raimi too.
Tarantino's bringing Inglourious Basterds to town, in news long anticipated and planned but now confirmed. Almodovar's latest Penelope Cruz-starrer, Broken Embraces, will also play (if you really can't wait, that's already out in Spain), while Von Trier will bring his intriguing Antichrist to the Festival too (check out the trailer).
Johnny To is back at the Festival (following a storming performance in 2005 for Election) with Vengeance, and Michael Haneke is bringing The White Ribbon, a black-and-white film about fascism in a German school in 1913.
The opening film is Pixar's Up, which was already announced, but now we know that the Festival will close with Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, Jan Koenen's film that's one of two competing Chanel biopics, with Anne Fontaine's Audrey Tautou-starrer lagging behind suddenly.
Brits-wise, Ken Loach is bringing his footballing drama Looking For Eric (starring, among others, Eric Cantona!) and Andrea Arnold is bringing Fish Tank after winning the Jury Prize in 2006 for her debut film Red Road.
Ang Lee will premiere Taking Woodstock there, after a last-minute screening convinced organisers to include it. Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star in that. Jane Campion brings Bright Star, about the poet Keats and his love affair with his next-door neighbour, with Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish.
Korea's well represented with Park Chan-Wook bringing Thirst, about a man of faith turned into a vampire by a failed medical experiment, and Bong Joon-Ho (of The Host) bringing Mother to the Un Certain Regard section, about a mother's search for the killer who framed her son.
Out of competition screenings include Terry Gilliam's much-anticipated The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell.
The full line up is below, with the Director's Fortnight selection due to follow in a week or two. 52 films from 32 countries will be screened during the Festival, with 46 of those world premieres. The Festival runs from May 13 to 24.
Competition:
Pedro Almodovar - Broken Embraces
Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank
Jacques Audiard - Un Prophete
Marco Bellocchio – Vincere
Jane Campion - Bright Star
Xavier Giannoli – A L'Origine
Isabel Coixet – Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon
Ang Lee – Taking Woodstock
Ken Loach – Looking for Eric
Lou Ye - Spring Fever
Brillante Mendoza – Kinatay
Gaspar Noe – Enter The Void
Park Chan-Wook – Thirst
Alain Resnais – Les Herbes Folles
Elia Suleiman – The Time That Remains
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Johnnie To – Vengeance
Tsai Ming-liang – Face
Lars Von Trier – Antichrist
Un Certain Regard
Bong Joon Ho - Mother
Alain Cavalier - Irene
Lee Daniels - Precious
Denis Dercourt- Demain Des L'Aube
Heitor Dhalia - Adrift
Bahman Ghobadi - Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats
Ciro Guerra - The Wind Journeys
Mia Hansen-Love - Le Pere De Mes Enfants
Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Propescu and Ioanna Uricaru - Tales From The Golden Age
Nikolay Khomeriki - Tale In The Darkness
Yorgos Lanthimos -Dogtooth
Pavel Lounguine - Tzar
Raya Martin - Independencia
Corneliu Porumboiu - Police, Adjective
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang - Nymph
Joao Pedro Rodrigues - To Die Like A Man
Haim Tabakman - Eyes Wide Open
Warwick Thornton - Samson & Delilah
Jean Van De Velde - The Silent Army
Hirokazu Kore-Eda - Air Doll
Closing Film
Jan Kounen – Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Out of Competition
Robert Guediguian - L'Armee Du Crime
Alejandro Amenabar - Agora
Terry Gilliam The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus
Midnight Screenings
Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar - A Town Called Panic
Sam Raimi - Drag Me To Hell
Marina De Van – Ne Te Retourne Pas
Special Screenings
Anne Aghion - My Neighbor, My Killer
Adolfo Alix Jr and Raya Martin - Manila
Souleymane Cisse - Min Ye
Michel Gondry - L'Epine Dans Le Coeur
Zhao Liang - Petition
Keren Yedaya - Jaffa