2012 Cannes Film Festival Main Competition Selections: Reygadas, Haneke and Mungiu Joined by Daniels, Nichol and Vinterberg?!

As expected, master filmmakers both in the longstanding (Loach, Cronenberg, Reygadas, Haneke, Kiarostami) and relatively new (Matteo Garrone, Cristian Mungiu, Sergei Loznitsa) V.I.P members of Cannes Main Competition will make return visits to the Croisette with the biggest surprises reserved for what is deemed to be a U.S. heavy field (includes a new Ken Burns doc in the Special Screenings) with the inclusion of Jeff Nichols’ Mud and Lee Daniels’ Paperboy. Out of the 21 Main Comp titles (there is expected to be an add on or two in the forthcoming weeks), the biggest surprise is the inclusion of Thomas Vinterberg’s latest feature, The Hunt – which sees Mads Mikkelsen play a divorced dad character accused of a crime he did not commit. Not sure if you could call this another surprise, but Import/Export director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love is part one of a string of films — potentially a trilogy.

France is also well repped (especially if you include the France-produced Walter Salles On the Road, Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love and David Cronenberg Cosmopolis) with Jacques Audiard’s De Rouille et d’Os, Leos Carax’s Holy Motors, Michael Haneke’s Amour and Alain Renais’ Vous n’avez encore rien vu insuring that the Red, White and Blue of the old continent is the dominant force. Notable filmmakers that didn’t make the cut most likely because they weren’t yet ready yet or have Venice in mind include: Terrence Malick, WKW, Paul Thomas Anderson followed by Roy Andersson, Francois Ozon, Bahman Ghobadi, Xavier Giannoli, Olivier Assayas and Park Chan-Wook’s Stoker.

Also worth mentioning is the return of Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong “Thai Joe” Weerasethakul’s 61 minute long Mekong Motel. – this centers on a catastrophic flooding on Mekong River and its ties to China, Thailand and Laos with Tilda Swinton in the lead. And speaking of the Palme d’Or – our bets are on Carlos Reygadas’ Post Tenebras Lux.

Here’s the complete Main Competition line-up along with, the OOC and Special Screenings listings:

Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.

Jacques Audiard’s De Rouille et d’Os.

Leos Carax’s Holy Motors.

David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis.

Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy.

Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly.

Matteo Garrone’s Reality.

Michael Haneke’s Amour.

John Hillcoat’s Lawless.

Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog.

Hong Sang-soo’s In Another Country.

Im Sang-soo’s Taste of Money.

Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love.

Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share.

Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills.

Yousry Nasrallah’s Baad el Mawkeaa (Apres la Bataille).

Jeff Nichol’s Mud.

Alain Renais’ Vous n’avez encore rien vu.

Carlos Reygadas’ Post Tenebras Lux.

Walter Salles’ On the Road.

Ulrich Seidl’s Paradies: Liebe.

Thomas Vinterberg’s Jagten (The Hunt).

OUT OF COMPETITION

Dario Argento’s Dracula.

Bernardo Bertolucci’s Io e te.

Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

Gilles Jacob and Samuel Faure’s documentary Une Journee Particuliere.

Philip Kaufman’s Hemingway & Gellhorn.

Takashi Miike’s Ai To Makoto.

Claude Miller’s Thérèse Desqueyroux.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Fatih Akin’s Der Müll im Garten Eden.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mekong Motel.

Laurent Bouzereau’s Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir.

Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon’s The Central Park Five.

Sébastien Lifshitz’s Les Invisibles.

Claudine Nougaret and Raymond Depardon’s Journal de France.

Nelson Pereira Dos Santos’s A Musica Segundo Tom Jobim.

Gonzalo Tobal’s Villegas.