Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, has been added to the Cannes Film Festival Official Selection line-up, Screen has learned.
The film will play in Competition, the festival has confirmed.
It has been touch and go as to whether Tarantino, who has a long relationship with the Cannes Film Festival, would complete the feature in time.
In a statement, Cannes General Delegate Thierry Frémaux said: ”We were afraid the film would not be ready, as it wouldn’t be ready until late July, but Quentin Tarantino, who has not left the editing room in four months, is a real, loyal and punctual child of Cannes.”
Tarantino was last at the festival with a new feature a decade ago when he premiered Inglorious Basterds in Competition in 2009. It went home empty-handed but was Oscar nominated in nine categories in 2010, winning Christoph Waltz an Academy Award and Golden Globe for best supporting actor.
His return to Cannes this year with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is fitting because it ties in with the 25th anniversary of the Palme d’Or win for Pulp Fiction. Sony is due to release the new feature in the US on July 26.
Set against the heady backdrop of Los Angeles in 1969, the film touches on the brutal murder of Sharon Tate by members of the Charlie Manson’s cult at the time.
Producers David Heyman and Shannon McIntosh have sought to dispel rumours that the film is focused on the Manson Murders, however, saying in recent interviews that it explores instead a period when the Golden Age of Hollywood was coming to an end amid the rise of TV.
The festival also announced several other additions to its programme today (May 2). Abdellatif Kechiche’s four-hour Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo joins Tarantino’s film in Competition, while the Un Certain Regard section has added Lorenzo Mattotti’s La Famosa Invasione Degli Orsi In Sicilia and Larissa Sadilova’s Odnazhdy v Trubchevske.
Four titles have joined the Special Screenings programme: Gael García Bernal’s Chicuarotes, Patricio Guzmán’s La Cordillera De Los Sueños, Leila Conners’ Ice On Fire and Dan Krauss’ 5B.
Finally, Gaspar Noé will return to Cannes with a Midnight Screening of his 50-minute Lux Æterna, starring Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
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