I was wondering why Peter Mullan's Neds wasn't included in Venice. I was wondering why the Midnight Madness section didn't name Koen Mortier's latest. I was wondering why Cannes regular Bent Hamer wasn't in Cannes. TIFF's CWC section has all three high profile items, plus Venice Film Festival's Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichard) and Three (Tom Tykwer). Reichard will participate in Kelly Reichardt in a Mavericks discussion about the behind the scenes of her process.
This year there will likely be no omissions or screw ups such as last year’s mistake of leaving the Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days out of the process and there won't be the usual favoritism towards already established directors.
So far, about one third (35 countries to be exact) of the 96 invited to submit their entry for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Picture category have done so.
Thierry Fremaux, Alain Terzian, Jeanne Moreau, and filmmakers Jean-Jacques Annaud, Costa-Gavras and Regis Wargnier selected Laurent Cantet's schoolyard/classroom drama to rep La France.