If the Croisette belonged to Sony Pictures Classics and IFC Films, then Park City is where Searchlight, Focus, Apparition, Roadside, Samuel Goldwyn and Magnolia get to have a piece of the cake. If my predictions are half right, then this year's Sundance will have a unusually high number of titles with A list talent for sale.
Here is the complete 2008 Cannes Line Up.
Main Competition:
Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Three Monkeys (Turkey-France-Italy) Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne - Le Silence De Lorna...
I’m guessing that with one third of the films representing first time efforts, this year’s Un Certain Regard section will be a crapshoot for buyers and critics alike. Those that stick out among the pack come from promising directors with sophomore features such as
Highlighted by the presence of Jim Jarmusch (who will be receiving a special award called the Carrosse d’Or), the 40th year of the Director's Fortnight doesn't look as strong on paper as the previous edition, but the quality of this year's fair will be better determined in ten days or so. Containing a good amount of French productions, the section offers many first time efforts from filmmakers who get to tell their children that they took part in an event that showcases auteur cinema from the greats.
A common meeting place for auteur cinema, a special film was designed to recall the history of the section with testimonies from a who's who of favorite directors in Todd Haynes, Jacques Rozier, Costa Gavras, Michael Raeburn, Ken Loach, Alain Tanner, Carlos Diegues, Werner Herzog, Theo Angelopoulos, André Téchiné, Chantal Akerman, the Taviani brothers, Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Yousry Nasrallah, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Atom Egoyan, Michael Haneke, Peter Sellars, Naomi Kawase, Manoel de Oliveira, the Dardenne brothers, Stephen Frears, Sofia Coppola, Eric Khoo, Kim Rossi Stuart, Lisandro Alonso, Christophe Honoré, Bong Joon-Ho, William Friedkin and Jacques Nolot.