This year marks the 67th Annual Cannes Film Festival, an assemblage of the best and brightest in the film world. Last year marked a heavy period of controversy when Steven Spielberg presided over a jury that awarded the coveted Palme D'Or to Blue Is The Warmest Color. This year, the jury is presided over by Jane Campion, and onlookers are curious to see if controversy strikes again.
Cannes has announced that a lot of big names are participating in this year's festival. Recent Oscar winner for Best Director Michel Hazanavicius has returned with The Search, a remake of the 1948 drama from Fred Zinnemann, and the follow-up to his silent hit The Artist. Also debuting will be Olivier Assayas' Clouds Of Sils Maria, which features Juliette Binoche opposite Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz. And Tommy Lee Jones is starring in, and directing, The Homesman, which teams him with a starry cast that includes Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson, Miranda Otto, Grace Gummer, James Spader, William Fichtner, Hailee Steinfeld and Jesse Plemons.
Also debuting is the highly-anticipated drama Foxcatcher, which was meant for an Oscar season release last year but yanked at the last minute. The true-life story of an infamous murder case set amongst the world of wrestling, the film stars Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. Screening out of competition, meanwhile, is the blockbuster How To Train Your Dragon 2, and the thriller Lost River. You may know that last one under its former title: Ryan Gosling's directorial debut (!) was originally called How To Catch A Monster. Christina Hendricks, Matt Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn.
Robert Pattinson may be the belle of the ball this year. He's got two films at the fest. The first is David Cronenberg's Maps To The Stars, where he highlights a cast including Mia Wasikowska, Sarah Gadon, Julianne Moore and John Cusack. And he is the star of David Michod's gritty The Rover, one of the many Midnight titles showing on the Croisette.
The festival will open with Olivier Dahan's Grace Of Monaco, though there's no shortage of auteirist works as well. Former Grand Prix winner Atom Egoyan returns with Ryan Reynolds-starrer The Captive while Jean-Luc Godard presents his newest late-career project, the winkingly-titled Goodbye To Language, which will be presented in 3D. New films from Ken Loach, Xavier Dolan Mike Leigh the Dardenne brothers, Zhang Yimou, Nuri Bilge Ceylon and Asia Argento highlight the rest of the slate, with more titles rumored to be on the way. Keep your ear close to the ground, cinephiles: some of the year's best films will likely emerge from the fest.
