The Cannes Film Festival opens tomorrow and here are some of the exciting people and films in attendance. Many Cannes alumni are returning, some with films that were in competition over 20 years ago. Check back with us all week as we follow the news and introduce you to emerging filmmakers.
Audrey Tautou
Audrey Tautou is this year’s host of the opening and closing ceremonies at Cannes. Best known and much loved for the film Amélie, Tautou also stars in the new film Mood Indigo by director Michel Gondry, opening in France later this month.
Stephen Frears
Frears is an English film director and is the only filmmaker representing the UK at Cannes this year with his ‘special screening’ documentary, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, which examines Ali’s battle with the U.S. government over his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Frears is a two-time Oscar nominee for directing The Queen and The Grifters. He also directed Dirty Pretty Things, staring Audrey Tautou.
James Gray
Gray’s 20 year career returns to the place where it began. His second feature film, The Yards, was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. This writer/director has not one but two films in this year’s fest. The Immigrant stars Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner and Blood Ties also stars Cotillard, Clive Owen, Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldana.
Baz Luhrmann
Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby just opened to huge audiences in the U.S. and will also open Cannes tomorrow night. He’s no stranger to the fest, as his first feature film Strictly Ballroom, screened there 21 years ago.
The Coen Brothers
Oscar winners in Competition this year include the Coen Brothers with their 1960s folk music drama Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan. Coen’s were last in Competition at Cannes in 2007 with No Country for Old Men.
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderberg shot to fame after winning the Palme d’Or in 1989 with his first feature film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape. He’s back this year with one of the most highly anticipated films in Competition, Behind the Candelabra, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas as Liberace.
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
Valeria is the only woman director competing for the Palme d’Or with her feature, Un Chateau en Italie. As of 2012, Jane Campion remains the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or for her feature The Piano.
Find the complete line-up for this year’s festival on their website and join us here all week for more updates, trivia and clips.
