Cannes fest unveils its selection lineup – Foster, Penn top list of stars

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LOS ANGELES, April 14, (Agencies): Unveiling the Cannes official selection in Paris, festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux set the stage for an epic clash between the powers of good (including Steven Spielberg’s big friendly giant, “The BFG”, and Shane Black’s “Nice Guys”) and evil (“Money Monster” and “The Neon Demon”) among its English-language fare, which also includes new films from Jeff Nichols (“Loving”), Sean Penn (“The Last Face”) and Jim Jarmusch — the latter bringing both bus-driver drama “Paterson” and Iggy Pop docu “Gimme Danger”.

While paparazzi will have plenty of American stars to distract them on the red carpet — ranging from Shia LaBeouf (who headlines British director Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey”) to a double helping of Kristen Stewart (appearing in both “Personal Shopper” and the previously announced opening night film, Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society”) — the 49 titles unveiled on Thursday represent 28 countries in all, with an especially strong showing for Romania (with two films in competition, past Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu’s “Baccalaureat” and Cristi Puiu’s “Sierra-Nevada”, and debut “Dogs” in Un Certain Regard) and, of course, France.

Diversity

Such diversity is to be expected from the world’s leading showcase for international cinema, though questions from the assembled journalists immediately revealed perceived blind spots in the lineup (“No Italy!?” “Where’s Mexico?”). Fremaux shrugged off such concerns, stressing that the selection represents the best of the record-setting 1,869 features submitted for consideration.

Regarding the complete absence of Italian filmmakers in competition (a mere year after three of the country’s top directors wrestled for the Palme), Fremaux said the country’s rising generation of filmmakers was repped by Stefano Mordini (“Pericle Il Nero”) in Un Certain Regard, quipping, “Italy is close to our heart, as this year’s Cannes poster demonstrates!”

The Cannes Film Festival runs May 11-22.

Hollywood stars turned directors Jodie Foster and Sean Penn will show their latest films at the Cannes festival next month, organisers said Thursday.

Director Steven Spielberg will also unveil his take on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book “The BFG” (Big Friendly Giant) at the French festival, the biggest and most important in the movie calendar.

Foster’s Wall Street thriller “Money Monster” stars George Clooney while Penn’s former girlfriend Charlize Theron is the lead in his love story set among aid workers in Africa, “The Last Face”.

Both Foster and Spielberg will be outside the main competition of 20 films competing for the Palme d’Or.

The Spanish director — a leftwinger known for his support of environmental causes — cancelled a press conference last week to promote the story of a girl who disappears for a decade, and did not show up at another event in Barcelona.

Penn film about aid workers in Africa and movies about interracial marriage and cannibal fashion models are among the selections for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Here are the films showing in and out of competition.

Opening film

n “Cafe Society” by veteran US director Woody Allen is a Hollywood-set romance starring Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg.

In competition

n “The Last Face” by American actor-director Sean Penn is a romance set in Africa among aid workers starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem.

n “Julieta” by Spain’s acclaimed Pedro Almodovar about a mother’s search for her daughter who disappears for a decade.

n “Loving” by the American Jeff Nichols tells the story of a mixed race couple confronting racism in 1950s Virginia.

n “It’s Only the End of the World” by the French Canadian Xavier Dolan is a family drama with Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel and Lea Seydoux.

n “Paterson” by the American director Jim Jarmusch with Adam Driver playing a bus driver poet in the New Jersey city of the same name.

n “Toni Erdmann”, the much-anticipated new film from German director and producer Maren Ade, whose “Everyone Else” won the Jury Grand Prix at Berlin in 2009.

n “Aquarius” by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho. The title refers to the name of the building where the main character leads a solitary existence.

n “I, Daniel Blake” by the British director and Cannes favourite Ken Loach is about welfare cuts hurting vulnerable families.

n “American Honey” by the British maker of “Fish Tank” Andrea Arnold stars Shia LaBeouf as a young man who joins a sales team only to find himself drawn into a culture of bullying and abuse.

n “Personal Shopper” by France’s Olivier Assayas is a ghost story set in the world of Parisian fashion, with “Twilight” superstar Kristen Stewart, who will be making her second Cannes appearance in an Assayas movie after “Sils Maria” in 2014.

n “Handmaid” by South Korean director Park Chan-Wook best known for “Old Boy” is period drama about a rich woman and a crook set in the 1930s.

n “Slack Bay” (“Ma Loute”) by French director Bruno Dumont stars Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, the sister of former French first lady, Carla Bruni.

n “Graduation”, originally titled “Family Photos”, a family drama by Cristian Mungiu, the Romanian director of harrowing abortion drama “Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days”, which won the Palme d’Or in 2007.

n “La fille inconnue” (The Unknown Girl) by Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, who have already won the top prize twice.

n “Elle” by Dutch director Paul “Showgirls” Verhoeven is his return to the arthouse fold with French actress Isabelle Huppert as a businesswoman attacked in her home.

n “Sieranevada” by the Romanian director Cristi Puiu who is best known for 2005 film “The Death of Dante Lazarescu”.

n “The Neon Demon” by Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn, a supermodel horror set in the Los Angeles fashion and celebrity scene.

n “Mal de pierres” (“Stone sickness”) by the French director Nicole Garcia is set after World War II, and stars Marion Cotillard as a woman caught in an unhappy marriage who falls in love with another man.

n “Ma Rosa” is the latest offering from Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, whose “Kinatay” was in competition at Cannes in 2009.

n “Rester Vertical” (“Stay Upright”) is by French director Alain Guiraudie, whose “Stranger by the Lake” was rewarded in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes in 2013.

Out of competition

n “The BFG” (The Big Friendly Giant) by the Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, adapted from Roald Dahl’s children’s classic.

n “Money Monster” by the American actor-director Jodie Foster with George Clooney as a Wall Street pundit taken hostage by man destroyed by his dud tips.

n “The Nice Guys” by US director Shane Black is a thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe about the apparent suicide of a fading porn star.

n “Goksung”, (“The Wailing”) by South Korea’s Na Hong-Jin sees a detective investigate a mysterious sickness in a village.

Un Certain Regard

n “After the Storm” (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan).

n “Apprentice” (Boo Junfeng, Singapore).

n “Beyond the Mountains and Hills” (Eran Kolirin, Israel).

n “Captain Fantastic” (Matt Ross, US).

n “Clash” (Mohmaed Diab, Egypt).

n “The Dancer” (Stephanie Di Giusto, France).

n “The Disciple” (Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia).

n “Dogs” (Bogdan Mirica, Romania).

n “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki” (Juho Kuosmanen, Finland).

n “Harmonium” (Fukada Koji, Japan).

n “Inversion” (Behnam Behzadi, Iran).

n “The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis” (Andrea Testa, Argentina).

n “Pericles the Black Man” (Stefano Mordini, Italy).

n “Personal Affairs” (Maha Haj, Israel).

n “The Red Turtle” (Michael Dudok de Wit, Netherlands).

n “The Transfiguration” (Michael O’Shea, US).

n “Voir du Pays” (Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin, France)

Midnight Screenings

n “Gimme Danger” (Jim Jarmusch).

n “Train to Busan” (Yeon Sang-ho)

Special Screenings

n “Le Cancre” (Paul Vecchiali, France).

n “Exil” (Rithy Panh, France).

n “A Chad Tragedy” (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad).

n “The Last Beach” (Thanos Anastopoulos, Davide Del Degan, France).

n “Last Days of Louis XIV” (Albert Serra, France).

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