Cannes Fest Lineup Includes Americans Eastwood, Soderbergh and Kaufman

The Cannes Film Fest announced its lineup Wednesday, and lo and behold, Steven Soderbergh's two Che films were included in the competition after all, as one four-hour entry. There had been some question if Soderbergh could finish the pics in time. Clint Eastwood's The Changeling and Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York are the three American films in the competition. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda will show out of competition. Spielberg will return to the Croisette for the first time since The Color Purple in 1986. New films from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Walter Salles, Wim Wenders and Atom Egoyan will also be in competition. The opening and closing films have not been announced--Fernando Meirelles' Blindness, an Agnes Varda doc and Barry Levison's What Just Happened? were expected to be in the line-up.

Sean Penn will lead the main jury, comprised of Sergio Castellitto, Natalie Portman, Alfonso Cuaron, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Rachid Bouchareb. UPDATE: Penn has programmed a U.S. film by Alison Thompson, The Third Wave, as a special jury president presentation. Interestingly, Penn won an Oscar for Mystic River under the direction of competition director Eastwood, so that complicates the jury/competition dynamic just a tad.

Americans Abel Ferrara, Kelly Reichert and James Toback have films in the official Un Certain Regard selection, while David Lynch sprig Jennifer Lynch of Boxing Helena fame is in the midnight category.

The full line-up is on the jump:

Stateside, the Tribeca Film Fest kicked off Wednesday night in New York with Tina Fey's comedy Baby Mama. Still to unspool are David Mamet's jujitsu drama Redbelt, Errol Morris's Abu Ghraib doc Standard Operating Procedure and the Wachowski's family FX adventure Speed Racer.

LA COMPÉTITION ***

Nuri Bilge CEYLAN ÜÇ MAYMUN
(Les Trois singes)
Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE DE SILENCE DE LORNA

Arnaud DESPLECHIN UN CONTE DE NOËL

Clint EASTWOOD CHANGELING
(L'Echange)

Atom EGOYAN ADORATION

Ari FOLMAN WALTZ WITH BASHIR

Philippe GARREL LA FRONTIÈRE DE L'AUBE

Matteo GARRONE GOMORRA

JIA Zhangke 24 CITY

Charlie KAUFMAN SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (1st film)

Eric KHOO MY MAGIC

Lucrecia MARTEL LA MUJER SIN CABEZA
(La Femme sans tête)

Brillante MENDOZA SERBIS

Kornel MUNDRUCZO DELTA

Walter SALLES, Daniela THOMAS LINHA DE PASSE

Steven SODERBERGH CHE

Paolo SORRENTINO IL DIVO

Pablo TRAPERO LEONERA

Wim WENDERS THE PALERMO SHOOTING

Hors compétition :
********

Woody ALLEN VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

KIM Jee-woon THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD
(Le Bon, la Brute, le Cinglé)

Mark OSBORNE
John STEVENSON KUNG FU PANDA

Steven SPIELBERG INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Séances de minuit :

Emir KUSTURICA MARADONA

Jennifer LYNCH SURVEILLANCE

NA Hong-Jin THE CHASER (First Film)

Séances spéciales :

Terence DAVIES OF TIME AND CITY

Marco Tullio GIORDANA SANGUE PAZZO

WONG Kar Wai ASHES OF TIME REDUX

Marina ZENOVICH ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED

La séance du président du jury

Alison THOMPSON THE THIRD WAVE

UN CERTAIN REGARD
*******

BONG Joon Ho , Leos CARAX Michel GONDRY

TOKYO!

Antonio CAMPOS AFTERSCHOOL (First Film)

CHUNG Mong-Hong TING CHE (Parking) (First Film)

Thomas CLAY SOI COWBOY

Raymond DEPARDON LA VIE MODERNE (PROFILS PAYSANS)

Andreas DRESEN WOLKE 9

Sergey DVORTSEVOY TULPAN (First Film)

Amat ESCALANTE LOS BASTARDOS

Joana HADJITHOMAS, Khalil JOREIGE JE VEUX VOIR

Bent HAMER O' HORTEN

Annemarie JACIR MILH HADHA AL-BAHR
(Le Sel De La Mer) (First Film)

KUROSAWA Kiyoshi TOKYO SONATA

LIU Fendou YI BAN HAISHUI, YI BAN HUOYAN

Matheus NACHTERGAELE A FESTA DA MENINA MORTA
(La Fête De La Jeune Fille Morte) (First Film)

Ruben ÖSTLUND DE OFRIVILLIGA

Kelly REICHARDT WENDY AND LUCY

Jean-Stéphane SAUVAIRE JOHNNY MAD DOG

Pierre SCHOELLER VERSAILLES (First Film)

James TOBACK TYSON

Un Certain Regard jury president: Fatih Akin
Camera D'Or jury president: Bruno Dumont
Cinefondation jury president: Hou Hsiao-hsien

Comments

[Griff]

"Spielberg will return to the Croisette for the first time since 'The Color Purple' in 1985."

Anne, THE COLOR PURPLE wasn't completed until late in '85. Spielberg took the film to Cannes (out-of-competition) in 1986.

[MiraJeffAICN]

The under-the-radar movie to see here is Antonio Campos' Afterschool. I hear it's AMAZING.

[eithan]

there are some big names in the competition, but as the case last year showed, an unknown might sweep everyone away. I'd like to draw your attention to the Israeli entry to the competition. It is supposed to be an animated documentry (read that again : an animated documentry) about the experiences of the director as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon war. two frames from the movie were published in Israeli papers yesterday, and they were extremely impressive.