Only six more days until one of the world’s oldest, and most renowned, film festival kicks off it’s 2015 edition. It promises to be an interesting couple of days at La Croisette. Joel and Ethan Coen are the two Presidents of the Jury of the 68th Festival de Cannes. Other members include Xavier Dolan, fresh of his Mommy success, and Jake Gyllenhaal. That snub still hurts.
Below, you’ll find an overview of this year’s nominees as well as some of the most anticipated films that aren’t in competition. From the American Carol, which is obviously heading to the Oscars, to Son of Saul, a debut by a Hungarian filmmaker. You can always count on Cannes for delivering an interesting mix.
La Tête Haute (Standing Tall) – Opening film, not in competition
Rod Paradot and Benoît Magimel in ‘La Tête haute’
The Cannes opener generally has a more star studded cast, but last year that didn’t work out too well for Grace of Monaco. It got slashed by the critics, and it is going straight to lifetime. Maybe a sign, the film festival could use a shakeup. La Tête haute is considerably more low key, and only the second opening film ever to be directed by a woman. Emmanuelle Bercot first appeared on La Croisette with Les Vacances, a short film that won her the Jury Prize in 1997. This coming of age story of a young delinquent stars Rod Paradot, Benoît Magimel and Catherine Deneuve.
Dheepan – In Competition
Marc Zinga in ‘Dheepan’
Dheepan is a French – Indian production, written and directed by Jacques Audiard. His most recent film was De Rouille et d’Os (Rust and Bone), which starred Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard. This is Audiard‘s fourth nomination. He previously won Best Screenplay (Un héros très discret) and the Grand Prize of the Jury (Un Prophète).
Marguerite et Julien – In Competition
Anaïs Demoustier and Jérémie Elkaïm in ‘Marguerite et Julien”
Between the nineteen films in competition for the Palme d’Or, five are directed by women. This is one of them. Valérie Donzelli is not only a writer and a director, she’s also an established actress. She recently starred in Saint Laurent, the biopic of the French designer. In 2012 she got four César Awards nominations, for La Guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War), a films she wrote, directed and starred in. Marguerite et Julien follows the incestuous relationship of two siblings. Cersei et Jaime, anyone?
IL RACCONTO DEI RACCONTI (The Tale of Tales) – In Competition
Quite possibly one of the strangest films in competition, Il Racconto del Racconti is a dark interpretation of the fairy tales by Italian author Giambattista Basile. Director Matteo Garrone has previously won the Grand Prix for his film Reality (2012), but this is his English language debut .The film stars Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones.
On page two: Cate blanchett and a lot of Scottish Plays
Filmcurious 
Reblogged this on My Journey Through Cinema.
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Thanks! I look forward to reading your reviews on your new blog! Congrats! 😉
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Thank you kindly! I’m still thinking on making individualised posts like what you have made here, but I am unsure of what though.
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Yeah, I’m still sort of figuring that out myself. But I’m sure you’ll come up with something awesome! 😉
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