Cannes film festival unveils pick of Hollywood giants

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Cannes film festival unveils pick of Hollywood giants

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Organisers will announce the 50-odd films awarded a slot at the May 16-27 event.

19 April,2012 11:26 am

The Cannes film festival on Thursday unveils its pick of Hollywood giants and arthouse newcomers to compete at the worlds top movie showcase on the French Riviera next month.Organisers will announce the 50-odd films awarded a slot at the May 16-27 event at a press conference in Paris, half of them in the official race for the Palme dOr and half in the parallel new talent section, Un Certain Regard.Cannes general delegate Thierry Fremaux selected the line-up from among some 1,700 submissions, from the biggest names in film right down to first-time directors from North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America or Africa.Star-wise, Nicole Kidman is tipped to make a double appearance after Fremaux warned in an interview the Australian actress was going to surprise us.Kidman holds lead roles this year in two very different thrillers: Stoker by South Koreas Park Chan-wook, and the 1960s-set The Paperboy by US director Lee Daniels.The French press is betting on Marion Cotillard, star of three Cannes-tipped films: Of Rust and Bone by Frenchman Jacques Audiard, Low Life by US director James Gray about an immigrant woman tricked into a life of burlesque, and Christopher Nolans new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.On the Road by the Brazilian Walter Salles is all-but-assured of a slot: based on the Jack Kerouac novel the movie stars Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen.David Cronenbergs Cosmopolis, starring Robert Pattinson as a billionaire asset manager, is seen as a strong contender, as is Australias Andrew Dominik with the gangster flick Killing Them Softly starring Brad Pitt.Austrian director Michael Haneke -- whose The White Ribbon won the 2009 Palme dOr -- is seen as a likely choice with Amour (Love), starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman hit by a stroke.Veteran Frenchman Alain Resnais, who will shortly turn 90, is expected to bring his new film Vous navez encore rien vu (You Havent Seen Nothing Yet).And from Britain, Ken Loach -- who has brought 16 films to Cannes in the past -- could be in with The Angels Share, about an ex-offender on the mend.This years jury is headed up by Italian director Nanni Moretti, who scooped a Palme dOr for La stanza del figlio (The Sons Room) in 2001 and who told AFP he would be looking for films that are still able to surprise me.The jury for Un Certain Regard is to be chaired by the British actor and director Tim Roth.Berenice Bejo, co-star of the hit French silent movie The Artist, is to host the festivals opening and closing ceremonies.Wes Andersons 1960s teen love story Moonrise Kingdom will open the festival, while Claude Millers Therese Desqueyroux will close it, in a tribute to the French filmmaker who had barely finished editing the movie when he died this month aged 70.