FEATUREFOCUS n CANNES FESTIVAL LINE-UP The Tree Of Life
Sleeping Beauty
Box of delights T
he Cannes Film Festival showcases the best films of the year. There is lit- tle doubt about that. The rigorously programmed Official Selection man-
ages to combine the new work of great auteurs with discoveries that appear to have come out of nowhere. While it doesn’t fuel the buyers’ bidding wars that have become a staple of Sundance or Toronto, it generates more business for its selected films than it is given credit for. Take 2010, not considered a vintage year
for Cannes. US buyers were busy through- out the festival and afterwards, as the list here indicates. By our calculations, 35 films in Official
Selection and sidebars scored North Ameri- can deals during or after the festival. That does not include films which already had deals in place (Fair Game, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Blue Valentine, Tamara Drewe etc). The sums changing hands were not enor-
mous but this is the art trade, and the market for foreign-language films in every territory is constrained. n Sony Pictures Classics bought Another Year, Of Gods And Men and Life Above All n IFC Films bought Certified Copy, The Housemaid, The Princess Of Montpensier, Heartbeats, Kaboom, We Are What We Are and The Myth Of The American Sleepover n Roadside Attractions and Liddell Enter- tainment bought Biutiful n Strand Releasing bought Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Carancho and Leap Year
n Kino bought My Joy and Poetry n Film Movement bought A Screaming Man and Illegal n Cohen Media Group bought Outside The Law n Cinema Guild bought Aurora and The Strange Case Of Angelica n New Yorker Films bought Octubre n Lorber Films bought Tuesday After Christmas, Le Quattro Volte and Armadillo n Kino Lorber Films bought Film Socialism n Zeitgeist Films bought The Tree n Arthouse Films bought Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow n Icarus Films bought Nostalgia For The Light n Indomina Releasing bought The Pack n Pantelion Films bought Abel n Global Film Initiative bought The Invisi- ble Eye and The Light Thief n NeoClassics Films bought Cleveland Vs Wall Street n National Geographic Cinema Ventures bought Benda Bilili! n Tuckman Media bought Boxing Gym And that was just the US market. Once
again this year, buyers from every territory will be out in force. Our Cannes feature profiles all the films in
the Official Selection as well as Directors’ Fortnight and International Critics’ Week, giving outlines and backgrounds on each title. Whatever the pedigree, buyers will have to see the films on site. This being Cannes, the art is in the execution. Mike Goodridge, editor
n 22 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 11, 2011
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Amid the excited talk of potential Palme d’Or winners, Screen lifts the lid on this year’s box-fresh contenders and profiles all the features in Official Section, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week
OUT OF COMPETITION
OPENING FILM MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (US-Sp) Dir Woody Allen The third collaboration between Allen, MediaPro and Gravier Productions is a French-flavoured romantic comedy about a couple visiting Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody. Imagina has sold widely, including to SPC for the US, Mars Films for France, Concorde for Germany, Medusa for Italy and Alta Films for Spain. Allen has never had a film in Competition at Cannes but is a Croisette favourite, with You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger world-premiering out of competition last year. Int’l sales Imagina International Sales
info@imagina.tv
IN COMPETITION
SLEEPING BEAUTY (Aus) Dir Julia Leigh* Sydney-based novelist-turned-film-maker Leigh lands a Competition slot with her debut feature (the script made it onto Hollywood’s Black List in 2008). This erotic fairy tale stars Emily Browning, whose credits include Sucker Punch, as a student drawn into a world where old men seek erotic experiences while she sleeps in a beauty chamber. Cannes regular Jane Campion mentored Leigh on the production and is ‘presenting’ the film for release. Paramount/Transmission is distributing in Australia. Int’l sales Entertainment One
e1tv@e1ent.com
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (UK) Dir Lynne Ramsay This adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s bestselling book marks Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay’s first feature since 2002’s Morvern Callar (which screened in Directors’ Fortnight) and is the only UK film in Official Selection. Tilda Swinton plays the mother of a teenage boy (Ezra Miller) who goes on a high-school killing spree, trying with her estranged husband (John C Reilly) to deal with her grief. Backers for the film include BBC Films and the UK Film Council. Producers are Luc Roeg for Independent with Jennifer Fox and Robert Salerno. Int’l sales Independent mail@
independentfilmcompany.com
THE TREE OF LIFE (US) Dir Terrence Malick This much-anticipated new film from Terence Malick has been linked to several film festivals, but finally gets a Cannes slot. The beautiful, though cryptic, trailer points to a complex and philosophical 1950s-set drama centring around a family with three boys, with the eldest son witnessing the loss of innocence. The cast includes Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. Malick won the best director prize in 1979 for Days Of Heaven, and while never prolific he has a status with critics as a masterly film-maker. Summit is handling foreign sales on behalf of River Road, and Fox Searchlight will release in the US. Int’l sales Summit Entertainment
www.summit-ent.com
»
* Eligible for the Camera d’Or
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