After literally days of rampant speculation and fanciful rumor-spreading (on my part), this year’s official line-up for the Cannes 2012 Film Festival has officially been unveiled by officials in the South of France. Officially.
Unsurprisingly, and as predicted, my own 13 film wishlist was largely completely wrong ‐ but I did predict a massive four (including the absence, thankfully, of Terrence Malick), and in my defense, Michael Haneke’s Love was the 14th film on my list until I decided to oust it for timing reasons. Brad Pitt, Robert Pattinson and Tom Hardy will battle each other as Killing Them Softly (the awfully renamed adaptation of Cogan’s Trade), Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and the other needlessly renamed flick, Lawless (why not just keep it as The Wettest County?) compete for the Palme d’Or.
At this stage, aside from the three titular highlights, the prospect of a midnight screening of Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D sticks out, along with Lee Daniels’ follow-up to Precious, The Paperboy starring Zac Efron (who’d have thought that the competition this year would feature Efron, Shia LaBeouf and Robert Pattinson?). And then there’s the small matter of the long in gestation On The Road from Walter Salles, Haneke’s Love and long-time festival favourite Ken Loach’s latest. It all makes for a fine selection, despite the lack of Prometheus and The Master, both of which I would have killed to see in France, and one with plenty of commercial interest (not that that’s what the fest stands for at all).
And I haven’t quite given up on the idea of Prometheus sneaking in as a Special Out of Competition screening ‐ because Cannes is notorious for adding films to the bill very late.
Anyway, here’s the list in full. Behold!
Opening Film
- Moonrise Kingdom (dir. Wes Anderson) [Also In Competition]
Closing Film
- Therese Desqueyroux (dir. Claude Miller)
In Competition
- Rust and Bone (dir. Jacques Audiard)
- Holy Motors (dir. Leos Carax)
- Cosmopolis (dir. David Cronenberg)
- The Paperboy (dir. Lee Daniels)
- Killing Them Softly (dir. Andrew Dominik)
- Reality (dir. Matteo Garrone)
- Love (Amour) (dir. Michael Haneke)
- Lawless (dir. John Hillcoat)
- In Another Country (Da-Reun Na-Ra-E-Suh) (dir. Sangsoo Hong)
- Taste of Money (dir. Sangsoo Im)
- Like Someone In Love (dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
- The Angels’ Share (dir. Ken Loach)
- Beyond the Hills (dir. Cristian Mungiu)
- Baad el Mawkeaa (Apres la Bataille) (dir. Yousry Nasrallah)
- Mud (dir. Jeff Nichols)
- You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet (Vous n’avez encore rien vu) (dir. Alain Resnais)
- Post Tenebras Lux (dir. Carlos Reygadas)
- On the Road (dir. Walter Salles)
- Paradies: Liebe (dir. Ulrich Seidl)
- The Hunt (Jagten) (dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
Un Certain Regard
- Miss Lovely (dir. Ashim Ahluwalia)
- La Playa (dir. Juan Andres Arango)
- Les Chevaus de Dieu (dir. Nabil Ayouch)
- Trois Mondes (dir. Catherine Corsini)
- Antiviral (dir. Brandon Cronenberg)
- 7 Dias en la Habana (dir. Laurent Cantet, Benicio Del Toro, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noe, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabio and Pablo Trapero)
- Le Grand Soir (dir. Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern)
- Laurence Anyways (dir. Xavier Dolan)
- Despues de Lucia (dir. Michel Franco)
- Aimer a Perdre la Raison (dir. Joachim Lafosse)
- Mystery (dir. Lou Ye)
- Student (dir. Darezhan Omirbayev)
- La Pirogue (dir. Moussa Toure)
- Elefante Blanco (dir. Pablo Trapero)
- Confession of a Child of the Century (dir. Sylvie Verheyde)
- 11.25 the Day He Chose His Own Fate (dir. Koji Wakamatsu)
- Beasts of the Southern Wild (dir. Benh Zeitlin)
Out of Competition
- Io e Te (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
- Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (dir. Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath)
- Hemingway and Gellhorn (dir. Philip Kaufman)
Midnight Screenings
- Dario Argento’s Dracula 3-D (dir. Dario Argento)
- Ai Io Makoto (dir. Takashi Miike)
Special Screenings
- Garbage in the Garden of Eden (Der mull im garten Eden) (dir. Faith Akin)
- Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (dir. Laurent Bouzereau)
- The Central Park Five (dir. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon)
- Les Invisibles (dir. Sebastien Lifshitz)
- Journal De FranceE (dir. Claudine Nougaret and Raymond Depardon)
- A Musica Segundo Tom Jobim (dir. Nelson Pereira Dos Santos)
- Villegas (dir. Gonzalo Tobal)
- Mekong Hotel (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Short Films
- Mi Santa Mirada (dir. Alvaro Aponte-Centeno ‐ Puerto Rico
- Gasp (Souffle) (dir. Eicke Bettinga ‐ Germany
- Ce Chemin Devant Moi (dir. Mohamed Bourokba a.k.a. Hame) ‐ France
- Waiting For P.O. Box (Falastein, Sandouk Al Intezar Lil Burtuqal) (dir. Bassam Chekhes) ‐ Syria
- The Chair (dir. Grainger David) ‐ US
- Night Shift (dir. Zia Mandivwalla) ‐ New Zealand
- Chef De Meute (dir. Chloe Robichaud) ‐ Canada
- Yardbird (dir. Michael Spiccia) ‐ Australia
- Cockaigne (dir. Emilie Verhamme) ‐ Belgium
- Silent (Sessiz-Be Deng) (dir. L Rezan Yesilbas) ‐ Turkey
The Cinefondation Selection
- Behind Me Olive Trees (Derriere Moi Les Oliviers) (dir. Pascale Abou Jamra) ‐ ALBA, Lebanon
- The Barber (Riyoushi) (dir. Shoichi Akino) ‐ Tokyo University of The Arts, Japan
- The Raptures (Les Ravissements) (dir. Arthur Cahn) ‐ La Femis, France
- Slug Invasion (dir. Morten Helgeland) ‐ The Animation Workshop, Denmark
- Tambylles (dir. Michal Hogenauer) ‐ FAMU, Czech Republic
- Matteus (dir. Leni Huyghe) ‐ Sint-Lukas Brussels, Belgium
- The Camp in Razoare (dir. Cristi Iftime) ‐ UNATC, Romania
- The Road To (Doroga Na) (dir. Taisia Igumentseva) ‐ VGIK, Russia
- Land (Terra) (dir. Piero Messina) ‐ CSC, Italy
- The Hosts (Los Anfitriones) (dir. MIguel Angel Moulet) ‐ EICTV, Cuba
- The Ballad of Finn + Yeti (dir. Meryl O’Connor) ‐ UCLA, US
- Head Over Heels (dir. Timothy Reckart) ‐ NFTS, UK
- Abigail (dir. Matthew James Reilly) ‐ NYU, US
- Dog Leash (Resen) (dir. Eti Tsicko) ‐ TAU, Israel
- Could See A Puma (Pude Ver Un Puma) (dir. Eduardo Williams) ‐ UCINE, Argentina
That’s it. What are you most pumped for? What should we see while we’re there?