Croisette menu

The Cannes film festival is just eight weeks away and the choice of films on offer to Thierry Frémaux, his team and all the sidebar programmers is a rich one. Over the next two pages Screen assesses the films in post-production which should be ready for selectors to see and possibly play at this year’s festival (May 12-23). Some of these titles will not be ready in time and will fall to the Venice/Toronto axis later in the year, but this feature is designed to give a snapshot of the world cinema available for world premiere on the Croisette.

There are plenty of Cannes favourites with titles ready for inclusion. Mike Leigh is rumoured to be have come back into the Cannes fold with his latest film, Another Year; Nikita Mikhalkov returns with The Exodus — The Fortress: Burnt By The Sun 2 (part one was in Competition in 1994); and Rachid Bouchareb should have ready Outlaws, the second of his Algerian trilogy. The first, Days Of Glory (Indigenes), was a Cannes prizewinner in 2006.

Other returning names include Julian Schnabel, Abbas Kiarostami, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Johnnie To, Bertrand Blier, Pablo Trapero, and the latest — and, he has declared, last — film from Jean-Luc Godard, Film Socialism.

Tasty US prospects include Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger with Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin and Antonio Banderas. The star quotient could be high.

And could the Cannes team possibly resist the prospect of a world premiere for Sylvester Stallone’s action epic The Expendables, an event which could see Stallone walking the red carpet with his co-stars including Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The list was compiled by Screen’s staff and correspondents after deep consultation with the industry. It is all speculation, of course, at this stage, but what is Cannes without speculation?

Aditya Assarat
High Society (Thailand)

Im Kwon-taek
Untitled 101st film (South Korea)

Im Sang-soo
The Housemaid (South Korea)

Jia Zhang-ke
Untitled documentary (China)

Lee Chang-dong
Poetry (South Korea)

Takeshi Kitano
Outrage (Japan)

Takashi Miike
Thirteen Assassins (Japan)

Sion Sono
Cold Fish (Japan)

Johnnie To
Death Of A Hostage (Hong Kong)

Tran Anh Hung
Norwegian Wood (Japan)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand)

Hiromasa Yonebayashi
The Borrower Arrietty (Japan)

Shirley Barrett
South Solitary

Julie Bertucelli
The Tree (France-Australia)

Xavier Dolan
Love, Imagined

Olivier Assayas
Carlos (mini-series)

Bartabas
Zingaro Revisited

Xavier Beauvois
Of Gods & Men

Bertrand Blier
The Clink Of Ice

Rachid Bouchareb
Outlaws

Laure Charpentier
Gigola

Jean-Paul Civeyrac
Des Filles En Noir

Isabelle Czajka
Living On Love Alone

Lola Doillon
Sous Ton Emprise

Jean-Luc Godard
Film Socialism

Otar Iosseliani
Chantrapas

Abdellatif Kechiche
Black Venus

Abbas Kiarostami
Certified Copy

Gilles Marchand
Black Heaven

Julian Schnabel
Miral

Bertrand Tavernier
The Princess Of Montpensier

Benedek Fliegauf
Womb (Germany-Hungary-France)

Lars Kraume
The Days To Come

Chris Kraus
Poll

Pia Marais
At Ellen’s Age

Sophie Schoukens
Marieke, Marieke

Oliver Stoltz
Chanda’s Secrets

Tom Tykwer
Three

Sergio Castellitto
La Belezza Del Somaro

Saverio Costanzo
The Solitude Of Prime Numbers

Daniele Luchetti
La Nostra Vita

Mario Martone
We Believed (Noi Credevamo)

Alberto Negrin
Memories Of Anne Frank

Gabriele Salvatores
Happy Family

Patricio Guzman
Nostalgia De La Luz (Chile)

Pablo Larrain
Post Mortem (Chile)

Sergio Machado
The Two Deaths Of Quincas Wateryell (Brazil)

Michael Rowe
Ano Bisiesto (Mexico)

Pablo Trapero
Carancho (Argentina)

Maryam Keshavarz
Circumstance (Iran)

Dover Koshashvili
The Duel (US-Israel)

Marian Crisan
Morgen (France-Romania-Hungary)

Nikita Mikhalkov
The Exodus — The Fortress: Burnt By The Sun 2 (Russia)

Kornel Mundruczo
Untitled (Hungary)

Cristi Puiu
Aurora (Romania)

Danis Tanovic
Cirkus Columbia  (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Bela Tarr
The Turin Horse (Hungary)

Susanne Bier
The Revenge (Denmark)

Stig Bjorkman
Flashback Bergman (Sweden)

Per Fly
The Woman That Dreamed About A Man (Denmark-Sweden-Norway)

Bent Hamer
Home For Christmas (Norway)

Petter Naess
Shameless (Norway)

Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjarne Nilsson
Sound Of Noise (Sweden)

Iciar Bollain
Even The Rain

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Biutiful

Julio Medem
Room In Rome

Guillem Morales
Julia’s Eyes

Jonas Trueba
Todas Las Canciones Hablan De Mi

Andrucha Waddington
Lope

Stephen Frears
Tamara Drewe

Mike Leigh
Another Year

Kevin Macdonald
The Eagle Of The Ninth

David Mackenzie
The Last Word

Peter Mullan
Neds

Woody Allen
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (US-Spain)

Darren Aronofsky
Black Swan

Gela Babluani
13

John Cameron Mitchell
Rabbit Hole

Sofia Coppola
Somewhere

Jodie Foster
The Beaver

Lodge Kerrigan
Rebecca H

Terrence Malick
The Tree Of Life

Oren Peli
Area 51

Kelly Reichardt
Meek’s Cutoff

Bruce Robinson
The Rum Diary

Robert Rodriguez
Machete

David O Russell
The Fighter

Sylvester Stallone
The Expendables

Julie Taymor
The Tempest

Peter Weir
The Way Back