This Year's Official Cannes Line-Up

[Mister Tee]

Cannes steps out with Latino beat

Almodovar, Loach, Karismaki, Coppola, Linklater in competish

By DEREK ELLEY


LONDON — Latino cinema is the big winner, while U.S. and French filmers hold their place, in the Official Selection of the 59th Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28), announced in Paris today.
This year's Competition, at a trim 19 titles, artfully mixes Croisette favorites (Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Aki Kaurismaki) alongside known or established names that are new to that particular section.

Among the latter is Sofia Coppola (costumer "Marie-Antoinette"), who actually began her Cannes career in Directors Fortnight with "The Virgin Suicides" (1999) and Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (English-lingo drama "Babel"), who was discovered by Critics Week six years ago with "Amores perros."

Other Competition newcomers were nurtured by festivals like Toronto and Venice, including Richard Linklater ("Fast Food Nation"), Belgian Lucas Belvaux ("The Weakest Is Always Right") and Portuguese mini-malist Pedro Costa ("Youth on the March").

As such, artistic director Thierry Fremaux maintains the position of the Competition as a platform to be aspired to, rather than one of discovery. Only one Competition feature is a first work: Scottish-set experimental drama "Red Road" by the U.K.'s Andrea Arnold, who won an Oscar for her short "Wasp."

Fremaux has bundled most of the first features (seven) into the sidebar Un Certain Regard, which is the usual broad mix of international titles peppered with some more familiar names (Italo vet Marco Bellocchio, Australia's Rolf de Heer).

Linklater also has a movie in Un Certain Regard — noir crimer "A Scanner Darkly," from a Philip K. Dick novel — making him the first director in memory to have two features in different sections of the Official Selec-tion.

Around a fifth of the 59 features that make up the Official Selection's three sections — Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard — come from Spanish, Portuguese or Italian-speaking countries. Two Italian directors (regulars Nanni Moretti and Paolo Sorrentino) are repped in Competition, alongside two Mexican helmers (Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Inarritu), both new to Cannes' Official Selection.

U.S. presence — and English-language cinema in general — is on a par with recent years, with around a dozen North American filmers across the various sections. Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko") joins Coppola and Linklater in Competition with the ensembler "Southland Tales, while U.S. prods dominate the galas ("United 93," "X-Men: The Last Stand," DreamWorks toon "Over the Hedge") and Special Screenings. Latter include an HBO docu featuring Variety itself: "Boffo: Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters."

Big loser this year is Asia, with no films from Japan and only one small independent drama from South Korea "The Unforgiven" (in Un Certain Regard). In a year when the main jury has an unprecedented two Chinese members (prez Wong Kar-wai, plus actress Zhang Ziyi), Chinese-speaking cinema is more substantially repped, with two works from the Mainland, one from Hong Kong (Johnnie To's "Election 2") and one from Taiwan (swordplay spectacle "Silk").


CANNES 2006: OFFICIAL SELECTION
OPENER
"The Da Vinci Code," U.S., Ron Howard (non-competing)

CLOSER
"Transylvania," France, (non-competing)

IN COMPETITION
"The Weakest Is Always Right," Belgium-France, Lucas Belvaux
"Summer Palace," China-France, Lou Ye
"Lights at the Edge of the City," Finland, Aki Kaurismaki
"Flandres," France, Bruno Dumont
"Selon Charlie," France, Nicole Garcia
"Quand j'etais chanteur," France, Xavier Giannoli
"Days of Glory," France, Algeria, Rachid Bouchareb
"The Wind That Shakes the Barley," Ireland-U.K., Ken Loach
"The Cayman," Italy-France, Nanni Moretti
"The Family Friend," Italy, Paolo Sorrentino
"Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico-Spain-U.S., Guillermo del Toro
"Youth on the March," Portugal, Pedro Costa
"Volver," Spain, Pedro Almodovar
"Climates," Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
"Red Road," U.K.-Denmark, Andrea Arnold
"Fast Food Nation," U.K.-U.S, Richard Linklater
"Marie-Antoinette," U.S., Sofia Coppola
"Southland Tales," U.S., Richard Kelly
"Babel," U.S.-Morocco, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

OUT OF COMPETITION
GALA SCREENINGS
"United 93," U.S.-U.K., Paul Greengrass
"X-Men: The Last Stand," U.S., Brett Ratner
"Over the Hedge," U.S., Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
"Election 2," Hong Kong, Johnnie To
"Silk," Taiwan, Su Chao-pin
"Shortbus," U.S., John Cameron Mitchell

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"Zidane, un portrait du 21e siecle," France, Phillipe Parreno, Douglas Gordon
"These Girls," France, Tahani Rached
"Avida," France, Benoit Delepine
"Ici Najac, a vous la terre," France, Jean-Henri Meunier
"Bamako," France-Mauritania, Abderrahmane Sissako
"Volevo Solo Vivere," Italy, Mimmo Calopresti
"Boffo: Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters," U.S., Bill Couturie
"An Inconvenient Truth," U.S., Davis Guggenheim

UN CERTAIN REGARD
"Cronica de una fuga," Argentina, Israel, Adrian Caetano
"Ten Canoes," Australia, Rolf de Heer
"Surburban Mayhem," Australia, Paul Goldman
"Luxury Car," China, Wang Chao
"La tourneuse de pages," France, Denis Dercourt
"La Californie," France, Jacques Fieschi
"Meurtrieres," France, Patrick Grandperret
"Paris, je t'aime," France, 24 directors (opener)
"Bled Number One," France-Algeria, Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
"977," France-Russia, Nikolay Khomeriki
"Re-cycle," Hong Kong, Oxide Pang, Danny Pang
"Taxidermia," Hungary, Gyorgy Palfi
"Serambi," Indonesia, Garin Nugroho
"The Wedding Director," Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
"You Am I," Lithuania, Kristijonas Vildziunas
"El violin," Mexico, Francisco Vargas
"Uro," Norway, Stefan Faldbakken
"Hamaca Paraguaya," Paraguay, Paz Encina
"Z odzysku," Poland, Slawomir Fabicki
"Cum Mi-am Petrecut Sfarsiful Lumii," Romania, Catalin Mitulescu
"The Unforgiven," South Korea, Yoon Jong-bin
"Salvador Puig Antich," Spain, Manuel Huerga
"Bihisht Faqat Baroi Murdagon," Tajikistan, Djamshed Usmonov
"A Scanner Darkly," U.S., Richard Linklater

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY
Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong director (president)
Monica Bellucci, Italian actress
Helena Bonham-Carter, English actress
Lucrecia Martel, Argentinean director
Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress
Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
Patrice Leconte, French director
Tim Roth, English actor
Elia Suleiman, Palestinian director

CINEFOUNDATION AND SHORT FILMS JURY
Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian director (president)
Sandrine Bonnaire, French actress
Daniel Bruhl, German actor
Souleymane Cisse, Malian director
Zbigniew Preisner, Polish composer