April 18, 2013–The official selection for the 66th annual event was announced by festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux and president Gilles Jacob at a Paris press conference on Thursday.
Major American movies are part of the official lineup. Alexander Payne’s road-movie “Nebraska,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1960s-set folk-music-themed “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s dark-edged revenge thriller “Only God Forgives” and James Gray’s 1920s-set drama “The Immigrant” are officially set to compete for a Palme d’Or at a star-packed Cannes Film Festival.
The competition roster, whose jury will be presided over by Steven Spielberg, also includes Steven Soderbergh’s buzzed-about HBO pic “Behind the Candelabra,” turning on the relationship between Liberace and his younger lover, and Roman Polanski’s “Venus in Fur, adapted from an Off Broadway play.
Refn’s anticipated follow-up to his former Cannes selection “Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” starring Ryan Gosling as a British gangster hiding in Bangkok’s criminal underworld, was co-financed and co-produced by two Paris-based powerhouses, Wild Bunch and Gaumont, which share international sales.
Other notable French contenders include two Wild Bunch titles: Francois Ozon’s “Jeune et jolie,” about an upper-class teenage girl who prostitutes herself; and Abdellatif Kechiche’s coming-of-age drama “La Vie d’Adele,” starring Lea Seydoux.
The English-language debut of French helmer Guillaume Canet, “Blood Ties,” will play out of competition, along with J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost,” toplining Robert Redford.
The Un Certain Regard selection, which has gained a higher profile under Fremaux’s leadership, will open with Sofia Coppola’s glitzy L.A.-set crime/drama “The Bling Ring,” as previously announced.
The program will also play Rebecca Zlotowski’s sophomore picture “Grand Central,” starring Tahar Rahim and Lea Seydoux; James Franco’s “As I Lay Dying;” Claire Denis’ “The Bastards”; and recent Sundance top prize-winner “Fruitvale Station,” from Ryan Coogler.
Kicking off with Leonardo DiCaprio starrer “The Great Gatsby” on May 15 (as previously announced), Cannes will once again be star-studded affair with such stars as Gosling in “Forgives”; Benicio Del Toro in “Jimmy P.”; Matt Damon and Michael Douglas in “Candelabra”; Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman in “Llewyn Davis”; Emma Watson in “The Bling Ring”; Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner and Marion Cotillard in “The Immigrant”; Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Clive Owen and Cotillard again in ”Blood Ties”; Berenice Bejo in “The Past”; and Seydoux in “La Vie d’Adele” and “Grand Central.”
2013 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP
OPENER
•“The Great Gatsby” (Baz Luhrmann)
COMPETITION
•“Behind the Candelabra” (Steven Soderbergh)
•“Borgman” (Alex van Warmerdam)
•“The Great Beauty” (Paolo Sorrentino)
•“Grigris” (Mahamet Saleh-Haroun)
•“Heli” (Amat Escalante)
•“The Immigrant” (James Gray)
•“Inside Llewyn Davis” (Joel and Ethan Coen)
•“Jeune et jolie” (Francois Ozon)
•“Jimmy P.” (Arnaud Desplechin)
•“La Vie d’Adele” (Abdellatif Kechiche)
•“Like Father, Like Son” (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
•“Michael Kohlhaas” (Arnaud Despallieres)
•“Nebraska” (Alexander Payne)
•“Only God Forgives” (Nicolas Winding Refn)
•“The Past” (Asghar Farhadi)
•“Straw Shield” (Takashi Miike)
•“A Touch of Sin” (Jia Zhangke)
•“Un chateau en Italie” (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi)
•“Venus in Fur” (Roman Polanski)
OUT OF COMPETITION
•“All Is Lost” (J.C. Chandor)
•“Blood Ties” (Guillaume Canet)
UN CERTAIN REGARD
•OPENER: “The Bling Ring” (Sofia Coppola)
•“Anonymous” (Mohammad Rasoulof)
•“The Bastards” (Claire Denis)
•“Bends” (Flora Lau)
•“Death March” (Adolfo Alix Jr.)
•“Fruitvale Station” (Ryan Coogler)
•“Grand Central” (Rebecca Zlotowski)
•“La Jaula de Oro” (Diego Quemada-Diez)
•“L’image manquante” (Rithy Panh)
•“L’inconnu du lac” (Alain Guiraudie)
•“Miele” (Valeria Golino)
•“Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan” (Lav Diaz)
•“Omar” (Hany Abu-Assad)
•“Sarah prefere la course” (Chloe Robichaud)
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
•“Blind Detective” (Johnnie To)
•“Monsoon Shootout” (Amit Kumar)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
•“Bite the Dust” (Taisia Igumentseva)
•“Bombay Talkies” (Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar)
•“Max Rose” (Daniel Noah)
•“Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (Stephen Frears)
•“Seduced and Abandoned” (James Toback)
•“Stop the Pounding Heart” (Roberto Minervini)
•“Week End of a Champion” (Roman Polanski)
CLOSER
•“Zulu” (Jerome Salle)
