Cannes Film Festival Unveils Star-Studded Lineup for 67th Edition


by Rhonda Richford, Georg Szalai
Films from Tommy Lee Jones, Bennett Miller, David Cronenberg, Jean-Luc Godard, Michel Hazanavicius, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh will all compete for the Palme d'Or.

PARIS – Tommy Lee Jones' The Homesman, Moneyball director Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher, The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius' Chechnya war film The Search, Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall andDavid Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars will all be part of the competition lineup of the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The lineup is heavy on films featuring Hollywood and international stars, but somewhat light on U.S. directors. Female directors have a strong presence this year.

Overall, 18 films, down from 20 last year, will compete for the festival's main award, the Palme d'Or. One film could be added, organizers said. The opening film, Olivier Dahan's Grace of Monaco, will screen out of competition.

Other competition titles include Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner about the classic painter, Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Two Days, One Night from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who are competing for Dardenne's third Palme d'Or win, Canadian director Atom Egoyan's The Captive, Japanese director NaomiKawase's Still the Water and Timbuktu from Abderrahmane Sissako. Plus, the living legend of French cinema, Jean-Luc Godard, will be back in competition and on the Croisette with his latest work, Goodbye to Language.

The competition films unveiled Thursday feature such stars as Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld and James Spader (The Homesman), Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher), Robert Pattinson, John Cusack and Julianne Moore (Maps to the Stars),Ryan Reynolds and Rosario Dawson (The Captive), Berenice Bejo and Annette Bening (The Search), Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria), Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), Lea Seydoux (The Blue Room), as well as others.

Cannes previously announced Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly and directed by Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose), as this year's opening night film. Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux explained that the version showing at the festival will be the director's cut. 

Ryan Gosling will bring added star power to the Croisette with his directorial debut Lost River, which will be part of the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Out of competition titles include Chinese director Zhang Yimou's Coming Home, starring Gong Li, DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon 2, which Fremaux said will allow the fest to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the animation studio in the presence of long-term supporter Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The Champs Elysees movie theater UGC Normandie, the regular home to some of Paris' splashiest film premieres, hosted the hotly anticipated Cannes lineup announcement on Thursday morning just after 11 a.m. local time.

Fremaux presided over the announcements of the main competition and Un Certain Regard selections, which also marked the debut event for new festival president Pierre Lescure. Lescure didn't take the stage though. Legendary festival president Gilles Jacob will be stepping down after 36 years on the Croisette.

The Un Certain Regard section of Cannes features many young and inspiring filmmakers, Fremaux said. The films include Gosling's Lost River, Christian Levrin's The Salvation, previously announced section opener Party Girl, a film from Argentina's Lisandro Alonso with Viggo Mortensen that has no English title yet and thatFremaux called "very strange," Asia Argento's The Misunderstood, Indian film Tikli from Kanu Behl, Ned Benson's Eleanor Rigby, young Chinese filmmaker Wang Chao's Fantasia and The Salt of the Earth from Wim Wenders andJuliano Ribeiro. The Roverfrom Australian filmmaker David Michod, about the environmental challenges pushing earth towards the end of the world, will be a Midnight Screening.

This year's Cannes jury is headed by director Jane Campion. Last year, Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Color won the Golden Palm.

The Cannes Film Festival runs May 15-May 25, with the closing ceremony and awards handed out May 24.

Fremaux opened the press conference thanking the press and creatives and referencing the global recession that has been a challenge in recent years. He also said the festival got many Indian submissions and is welcoming many U.K. filmmakers. He said some British directors, including Loach, don't always draw as much box office at home as one could assume based on the love they get from Cannes.

Fremaux said his team sorted through over 1,800 films, shot on anything from professional equipment to an iPhone, which increased organizers' burden. He still encouraged everyone to send in their films. He also added that Jacobs decided to increase the number of journalist accreditations this year by an additional 10 percent because journalists help spread the message about the importance of film worldwide, and that it proves that Cannes is still important to the movie business.

Here is a look at the complete 2014 Cannes Film Festival lineup:
OPENER
Grace of Monaco, Olivier Dahan
COMPETITION
Goodbye to Language, Jean-Luc Godard
The Captive, Atom Egoyan
Clouds of Sils Maria, Olivier Assayas
Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller
The Homesman, Tommy Lee Jones
Jimmy’s Hall, Ken Loach
La Meraviglie, Alice Rohrwacher
Leviathan, Andrei Zvyagintsev
Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg
Mommy, Xavier Dolan
Mr. Turner, Mike Leigh
Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello
The Search, Michel Hazanavicius
Still the Water, Naomi Kawase
Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako
Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Wild Tales, Damian Szifron
Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
OUT OF COMPETITION
Coming Home, Zhang Yimou
How to Train Your Dragon 2, Dean DeBlois
Les Gens du Monde, Yves Jeuland
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Amour fou, Jessica Hausner
Bird People, Pascale Ferran
The Blue Room, Mathieu Amalric
Charlie’s Country, Rolf de Heer
Dohee-ya, July Jung
Eleanor Rigby, Ned Benson
Fantasia, Wang Chao
Harcheck mi headro, Keren Yedaya
Hermosa Juventud, Jaime Rosales
Incompresa, Asia Argento
Jauja, Lisandro Alonso
Lost River, Ryan Gosling
Party Girl, Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis (OPENER)
Run, Philippe Lacote
The Salt of the Earth, Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Snow in Paradise, Andrew Hulme
Titli, Kanu Behl
Tourist, Ruben Ostlund
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
The Rover, David Michod
The Salvation, Kristian Levring
The Target, Yoon Hong-seung
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
The Bridges of Sarajevo, Various
Eau argentee, Mohammed Ossama
Maidan, Sergei Loznitsa
Red Army, Polsky Gabe
Caricaturistes – Fantassins de la democratie, Stephanie Valloatto
INTERNATIONAL
CANNES 2014

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