With the Un Certain Regard category pretty much complete, we can now focus our attention on next week's announcements for the sidebar sections of the Director's Fortnight and Critic's Week. I've listed a whopping 26 films and I'm confident that several will show up in the approximate 30 or so feature films with many first-time works that will make up both sections (put together).
New logo. New website. New artistic director. Olivier Pere exited to become the head honcho at Locarno, so the Director's Fortnight, also known as La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, will be Frederic Boyer's baby this year. The mandate will remain the same, but will the tastes differ? Pere's legacy includes some of my favorites over the past decade such as Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest...
I spent all of last week divulging some of films that I expect to be in Cannes this year, and Screen Daily happened to do the same. There are a good number of films that are mentioned of both sites' lists, but I mention about twenty films that the trade makes no mention of, and of course they have got a long list as well of films that I either passed on as potential selections or I was totally oblivious as to their existence.
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...
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.