67th Cannes Film Festival: Xavier Dolan, Egoyan & Rohrwacher Among Main Comp Surprises!

How sweat it is for Canadian film. There’ll be a maple syruppy touch to the Cannes Film Festival presence to the 67th Cannes Film Festival with a trio of Canuck films among today’s 17 Main Competition (we expect the number to possibly increase by at least one before the fest breaks). We have David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan and while there is no Denys Arcand this year, the baton has been passed over to Xavier Dolan, who we believe becomes the youngest ever filmmaker to be included in the section. The influx of Canadian helmers means a depletion of U.S fare, with only the opener, Tommy Lee Jones and Bennett Miller breaking into the group.

Of the line-up, the key surprises Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales (which sees Pedro Almodovar as one of the producers) and is baiscally a series of comic sketches and Alice Rohrwacher with only her second film (she broke into the Directors’ Fortnight with Corpo celeste) makes the cut with Le Meraviglie, which tells the the story of a 14-year-old girl in the Umbrian countryside whose secluded life is shattered by the arrival of a young German ex-con. Other surprises are in the no-shows. The Malick-less Main Comp reminds us of the frustration revolving aropund Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s Dau. Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher and Christian Petzold’s Phoenix might still find a home in the Directors’ Fortnight. Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence might still be in the editing docks. Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York might just be headed over to the Quinzaine or Venice.

In the special screenings items, we’re especially please to see David Michod give us a reason to stay up late for The Rover, and Sergei Loznitsa returns to his docu-roots for Maidan and is among the many collaborators on The Bridges of Sarajevo. Jean Luc Godard who is featured in the Main Comp as well, also contirbutes, as do Aida Begic, Isild le Besco, Leonardo di Constanzo, Pedro Costa, Kamen Kalev, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perisic, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha and Angela Schanelec. Here is the official Main Comp, Out of Comp, Midnight and Special Screenings line-up:

OPENER
“Grace of Monaco” (Olivier Dahan, France-U.S.-Belgium-Italy)

COMPETITION
“The Captive” (Atom Egoyan, Canada)
“Clouds of Sils Maria” (Olivier Assayas, France-Switzerland-Germany)
“Foxcatcher” (Bennett Miller, U.S.)
“Goodbye to Language” (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland)
“The Homesman” (Tommy Lee Jones, U.S.)
“Jimmy’s Hall” (Ken Loach, U.K.-Ireland-France)
“Leviafan” (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia)
“Le Meraviglie” (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy-Switzerland-Germany)
“Maps to the Stars” (David Cronenberg, U.S.)
“Mommy” (Xavier Dolan, France-Canada)
“Saint Laurent” (Bertrand Bonello, France)
“The Search” (Michel Hazanavicius, France)
“Still the Water” (Naomi Kawase, Japan)
“Mr. Turner” (Mike Leigh, U.K.)
“Timbuktu” (Abderrahmane Sissako, France)
“Two Days, One Night” (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium)
“Wild Tales” (Damian Szifron, Argentina-Spain)
“Winter Sleep” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey-Germany-France)

OUT OF COMPETITION
“Coming Home” (Zhang Yimou)
“How to Train Your Dragon 2”
“Les Gens du Monde” (Yves Jeuland)

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“The Rover” (David Michod)
“The Salvation” (Kristian Levring)
“The Target” (Yoon Hong-seung)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“The Bridges of Sarajevo” (various directors)
“Maidan” (Sergei Loznitsa)
“Red Army” (Polsky Gabe)
“Silvered Water” (Mohammed Ossama and Wiam Bedirxan)
“Caricaturistes – Fantassins de la democratie” (Stephanie Valloatto)