Search results for: Han Jie

Knowing Quentin Tarantino's appreciation for films that are "out there": if I had to do some really early predictions here, I'd say that the Gold and Silver Lion front-runners are in Alex De La Iglesia's bizarro fantasy film A Sad Trumpet Ballad, Pablo Larrain's Post Mortem or Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg (a filmmaker we recently profiled in our American New Wave 25 series - she spent more than a decade in Austin's film scene). I'd also add put Abdellatif Kechiche's Black Venus high up on any awards list, especially the Lido - it's a film I've been pegging for Venice since the film went into production.

If the Main Competition suffered because of the lack of film output from last year (Venice and TIFF have already seen the benefits), next year's edition of the Cannes film festival is already shaping up to be a fantastic year with names like Pedro, Von Trier, Dardennes, Cronenberg, PTA and Salles in the possible line-up. For those who made a case about there not being much female representation -- they'll be pleased to see that the latest works from Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay should be in the line-up --- and although I didn't add him to the list below, we could also see Steve McQueen's latest project in the fest. Here are a list of 20 projects I think will be in the fest next year.

In many ways, Cannes is like Disneyland. It's a lieu where dreams come true, where an actor can be plucked from obscurity, as was the case for Tahar Rahim - whose mind-numbing, break-out performance in A Prophet has landed him a wealth of future acting parts, and it's a place that helps sustain a career in filmmaking when you're banned from pursuing the profession in your own country, as was the case for provocateur Lou Ye.

Back in January, I published a comprehensive Top 100 Most Anticipated Films list for the upcoming year, I thought I'd wrap it up stats with a checklist below.

Working with probably his largest budget to date, Kechiche touches upon the immigrant narrative once again, but inside the context of a biographical, historical approach - Baartman is perhaps this year's most unusual choice for a biopic treatment.