2013’s Un Certain Regard Includes Plenty of Vets (Claire Denis, Rithy Panh, Rasoulof, Guiraudie, Abu-Assad) & Newbies too (Coogler)

2013’s Un Certain Regard section carries a whopping five first time feature filmmakers that’ll be measuring themselves up against auteur cinema heavyweights. While we nailed predictions for Alain Guiraudie’s L’inconnu du Lac, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central and the more international flavored title of the Sundance hit, Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler, we didn’t see major players such as S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine director Rithy Panh, or Paradise Now‘s Hany Abu-Assad (who brings us the first fully-financed film to come out of the Palestinian cinema industry) or Mohammad Rasoulof from Goodbye fame (brings us what is surely an aptly titled film in Anonymous) in the horizons.

As Nicholas mentioned yesterday, this would be a year of the women filmmakers (by Cannes standards) – six of them find themselves in the Un Certain Regard category. Sofia Coppola is joined by the baffling inclusion of Claire Denis alongside three first-time feature female helmers including, a Quebecois director in Chloé Robichaud (see pic above, trailer below), who had her short compete in last year’s Palme d’Or short film comp (we had her on our radar and we admittedly wrote the film off because of the subject matter). There was mention that the section might not be yet complete, but what we do know is the longest running item is Filipino helmer Lav Diaz’s four hour opus: Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan. Here’s the complete list of Un Certain Regard selected items:

The Bling Ring, dir: Sofia Coppola (opening film)
Grand Central, dir Rebecca Zlotowski
Sarah Préfère la Course, dir Chloé Robichaud
Anonymous, dir Mohammad Rasoulof
La Jaula de Oro, dir Diego Quemada-Diez
L’image Manquante, dir Rithy Panh
Bends, dir Flora Lau
L’inconnu du Lac, dir Alain Guiraudie
Miele, dir Valeria Golino
As I Lay Dying, dir James Franco
Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan, dir Lav Diaz
Les Salauds, dir Claire Denis
Fruitvale Station, dir Ryan Coogler
Death March, dir adolfo alix jr.
Omar, dir Hany Abu-Assad