Trailer for Palme d'Or winner 'Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives'

Behold:

-Thoughts?

Here are your winners from the 2010 Cannes Film Festival...

...and how did they stack up to my predictions? Well, first let's look at the winners:

Palme d’Or: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”

Grand Prix: “Of Gods and Men”

Best Actor: (tie) Javier Bardem, “Biutiful” and Elio Germano, “La Nostra Vita”

Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, “Certified Copy”

Best Screenplay: Lee Chang-dong, “Poetry”

Best Director: Mathieu Amalric, “On Tour”

Jury Prize: “A Screaming Man”

Camera d’Or: “Año Bisiesto,” Michael Rowe

Best Short Film: “Chienne d’Histoire”

-Well, I certainly did better than I was expecting (my predictions can be found a few posts down), so there's that...thoughts on the winners?

The Palme d'Or will be given out today!

Stay tuned for all the awards from Cannes!

In the meantime, what are your predictions for the awards? Here are mine:

Palme d’Or: “Of Gods and Men,” Xavier Beauvois (This is what I'm hearing will win)
Grand Prix: “Another Year," Mike Leigh
Jury Prize: “The Housemaid,” Im Sang-soo
Best Director: Mike Leigh, “Another Year”
Best Actor: Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, “Certified Copy”
Best Screenplay: Mathieu Amalric, Marcello Novais Telles and Philippe Di Folco, “On Tour”

-Thoughts?

Cannes begins doling out some awards...

...and while the big ones won't come till tomorrow, here are the winners so far today:

FIPRESCI JURY AWARDS

Competition: “On Tour,” Mathieu Amalric
Un Certain Regard: “Pal Adrienn,” Agnes Kocsis
Directors’ Fortnight: “Todos vos sodes capitans,” Olivier Laxe

UN CERTAIN REGARD AWARDS

Un Certain Regard Prize: “HaHaHa,” Hong Sangsoo
Jury Prize: “Octubre,” Daniel and Diego Vega
Performance Prize: Adela Sanchez, Eva Bianco and Victoria Raposo, “Los Labios”

ECUMENICAL JURY AWARDS

Ecumenical Jury Prize: “Of Gods and Men,” Xavier Beavois
Commendations: “Another Year,” Mike Leigh; “Poetry,” Lee Chang-dong

-I'm thinking tomorrow's Palme d'Or is between Another Year, Biutiful, The Housemaid, and Fair Game, but who knows...thoughts?

What's going on at Cannes?

Well, Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter has a piece on it:

Where's Lars von Trier when you really need him?
The 2010 Festival de Cannes desperately required a von Trier film or better yet von Trier press conference -- the Danish provocateur's true art form -- to enliven this year's slog through mediocrity and failure in the Official Selection. The mutterings down the Croisette from the Director's Fortnight and Critics Week sidebars indicated things didn't improve there either.
True, festival organizers strove mightily to lower the bar following last year's electrifying if controversial lineup of bloody, challenging titles. This was going to be an off vintage, they whispered, much like veteran winemakers surveying bad weather at harvest.
Fingers were pointed at major, highly desirable films not finished in time for Cannes. Or at a dearth of quality films submitted. One of the real problems though, year after year, has been the very small pond in which the festival's programmers choose to fish .
Of course, a critic cannot possibly know what goes on inside screening rooms in Paris but educated guesses can be made. Even a cursory examination of the annual Cannes lineup turns up a substantial number of films with French backing. Besides out-and-out French titles, many foreign selections in Cannes have co-production deals with French entities such as Canal Plus or Wild Bunch. How heavily does that weigh in their favor?
The festival's artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, and Vincent Maraval (Wild Bunch) have worked together for years. Canal Plus puts a lot of money into the Festival itself as an official sponsor. So consciously or subconsciously, that influence shouldn't be ignored.
Some Cannes critics have complained about the lack of American product, but films this year from Oliver Stone, Woody Allen, Doug Liman and Ridley Scott (a Brit who makes only studio pictures) certainly wave the Hollywood flag enough to satisfy most attendees. What's conspicuously absent though are American indie films.Indeed in announcing their sidebar slates, Fortnight and Critics programmers went out of their way to emphasize how they ignored films from Sundance. Which is fine if other equally interesting international indie films are available, but judging from the programs across the board in Cannes that certainly wasn't the case this year. Granted Cannes programmers prefer to host world premieres but at what cost? So you can show French trifles such as Matthieu Amalric's "Tournee" or a bad Italian TV movie such as "Our Life?"Even more absurdly ignored is the world's single largest film producer, India. True, after six straight years of neglect, one Indian film, "Udaan," did get into the Official Selection this year. But really, one film in seven years? I'm not talking about putting a Bollywood film into the Palais. I'm talking about Cannes programmers' seeming ignorance of vital regional cinemas all across India. There are enough films to program a large Indian festival in Los Angeles every April. Does anyone from Cannes even go to India to scout films?
The lack of representation of German films here has become an inside joke. Remember how "The Lives of Others" got discovered by Sony Pictures Classics at Cannes in 2006 -- in the market? The film that went on to win the Oscar for best foreign language film was rejected by Cannes.
You wonder what would happen if the Berlin International Film Festival ignored French cinema to the same degree. The screams out of Paris would be heard all the way to Berlin.And so it goes.
If Lars von Trier, Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Woody Allen, Wong Kar Wai, Claude Miller, Ang Lee and Terence Malick have big films ready for 2011 Cannes, all this can be safely ignored. A lineup of Old Faithfuls will undoubtedly produce a vintage Cannes. But if organizers run up against another year like 2010, they might get out of those Paris screening rooms and travel to Bombay and Park City. Fishing in a tiny pond next to a vast ocean makes little sense.

-Thoughts?

IFC Films picks up 'Certified Copy', 'Heartbeats', and 'Prey' for release...

...showing that they're pretty busy at Cannes. Here's the story on the first flick from The Hollywood Reporter:

IFC has scored U.S. distribution rights for Abbas Kiarostami's Festival de Cannes Competition title "Certified Copy," the film's producer and sales agent MK2 confirmed Thursday.

MK2 followed up presales of the film to Australia, Scandinavia, Argentina, Korea and Hong Kong with sales to Australia/New Zealand (Madman), the Nordic countries (Atlantic Film), Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and South Cone (CDI Films), Korea (Yega Entertainment) and Hong Kong (First Distributors) after its official festival screening.

The film, released in Gaul via MK2 on Wednesday, boasted the best opening results ever for a film by Abbas Kiarostami in France with 11,000 tickets sold on its first day in theaters on 101 prints.

And here's what IFC had to say about the other two flicks:

HEARTBEATS is the second film in two years for Xavier Dolan at the Cannes Film Festival where his debut I KILLED MY MOTHER won three of the four awards out of Director’s Fortnight. The film tells the story of Francis (Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) who are good friends. One night, they meet Nicolas (Niels Schneider), a young man from the country who has just settled in Montreal. From encounter to encounter, from moment to moment, troubled by innumerable signs — some real, some imagined — Francis and Marie fall deeper and deeper into a fantastical obsession with him. Soon, they find themsleves on the precipice of a love duel that threathens the friendship they once thought indestructible.

PREY tells the story of Nathan (BEAU TRAVAIL’S Gregoire Colin) who is at a countryside retreat for a Fall family reunion that he expects to be particularly stormy. Claire, his wife, has to announce her pregnancy and there are tough decisions that need to be made to prevent the family’s pesticides business from closing down. But on the first night that the family gathers, a terrorized deer mysteriously attacks Claire’s father. The men decide to venture into the surrounding forest to find the reasons for the animal’s odd behavior. Carrying a shotgun for the first time in his life and witnessing the growing tensions between the men in the family, Nathan soon discovers that hunting season is not over yet. Now they’ve become the prey. Marking the debut film for Antoine Blossier, PREY brings together a special effects team from some of Hollywood’s best films.

-Stay tuned for more acquisitions in the coming days...thoughts?

Will Brad Pitt be going directly to James Gray's 'Lost City' after some 'Moneyball'?

Well, that seems to be the plan, according to Collider:

Director James Gray (Two Lovers) may be finally shooting his adaptation of David Grann’s bestselling non-fiction book The Lost City of Z. We first reported on the project back in December 2008 and in April 2009 we reported that Brad Pitt was attached to star. Now, Screen Daily reports that Lost City may get in front of cameras once Pitt wraps filming on Bennett Miller’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball statistics drama, Moneyball. The film has been gaining major heat from buyers at Cannes due to the combination of the material and Pitt’s star power.
Via Screen Daily, The Lost City of Z “takes place in the early twentieth century and charts 30 years in the life of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a former decorated British soldier turned explorer.” The film has been gaining major heat from buyers at Cannes due to the combination of the material and Pitt’s star power.

-James Gray really got me back on his bandwagon with Two Lovers, and Brad Pitt has been doing some very strong work lately, so count me in...thoughts?

Sony Pictures Classics picks up Mike Leigh's 'Another Year' at Cannes!

Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

In a major film sale at Cannes, Sony Pictures Classics on Tuesday acquired domestic distribution rights to Mike Leigh's "Another Year."An ensemble drama, the British production has been among the fest's Competition films attracting the most accolades. Lesley Manville, who portrays the film's sadly befuddled Miss Lonely Hearts, is touted as a strong candidate for a best actress award at the fest."Year" focuses on a happily married couple, some troubled friends and the nuanced emotions of aging. Other cast members include Jim Broadbent, Oliver Maltman and Ruth Sheen ("Heartless").

Details of distribution plans were unavailable, but at a minimum it's likely that SPC will book "Year" for Oscar-qualifying exclusive engagements in 2010. SPC specializes in foreign-produced films and handled last year's Oscar winner in the foreign-language category, Argentine thriller "The Secret in Their Eyes."Miramax unspooled Leigh's last pic -- bittersweet dramatic comedy "Happy-Go-Lucky" -- in limited release in October 2008, with the Sally Hawkins starrer ringing up a total of $3.5 million domestically.

-Keep an eye out for this one in the fall/winter...thoughts?

How will Cannes shape up this year in terms of a buying market?

Well, here's an article in The Hollywood Reporter on just that:

Buyers need movies to fill release slates, and any titles with solid casting or a director attached are generally good bets. And sellers want to strike deals at a price that realistically reflects the economic gloom and falling production budgets without erasing profit margins. So the two sides are talking, but are they, you know, talking?

As the Marche du Film enters the home stretch Wednesday, there is reticence on both sides to be the ones to come out and say the marketplace is on its uppers. Certainly fewer and fewer sellers are hollering about North American sales.

The usual North American power buyers, including IFC Films and Phase 4 Films, had made it through Tuesday without pulling out their wallets.

Sony Pictures Classics, though, stepped up to the plate and acquired domestic rights to Mike Leigh's "Another Year" in the wake of a pre-emptive deal for Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe" it struck ahead of Cannes.

Newbies such as Red Flag Releasing ("8: The Mormon Proposition") and Oscilloscope Laboratories ("Howl") have yet to splash the cash. But another new guy on the block, Olive Films, opened its wallet, picking up a raft of titles. In addition to Danish film "R," which Olive snatched from TrustNordisk, the company did a major package deal with Germany's The Match Factory. Olive grabbed North American rights from Match for Semih Kaplanoglu's "Yusuf Trilogy": "Yumurta" (Egg) and "Sut" (Milk) and Berlin Golden Bear winner "Bal" (Honey), as well as last year's Berlin winner "The Milk of Sorrow" from Peruvian director Claudia Llosa and San Sebastian favorite "Me Too" from directors Alvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro.

"There are some gems out there that we're going to be going after," Oscilloscope's David Fenkel said. "You'll see, there will be plenty of deals over the next month. It is a quieter year but that's not because there aren't good films. The big companies aren't going after these movies right now, and that is what typically creates a lot of excitement."

Pre-Cannes, agency sales reps essentially shrugged at the potential for domestic deals, recognizing that shifts in the rhythm of the industry have made the Cannes market even less important for domestic sales.

Whereas the 2008 Cannes featured high-profile titles with U.S. distribution rights available, such as "Two Lovers," "Che" and "Synecdoche, New York," there aren't as many "substantial" titles available this year. CAA is repping Inarrituπs "Biutiful," which is one of the few pictures that seems destined for a domestic deal, but it sold Doug Limanπs "Fair Game" to Summit in the lead-up to the festival.

"The buyers are being very conservative," said Julie Sultan, Peace Arch Entertainment's president of international sales and distribution. "They are being very thoughtful with their selections."

At the same time that U.S. buyers are feeling less and less compelled to make early deals and foreign buyers are busy ... ish.

U.S. sales, finance and production banner Myriad Pictures jetted into Cannes with late sales slate addition "Margin Call," starring Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto. Cassian Elwes, along with UTA and Untitled Entertainment, is handling domestic for the banking crisis thriller and Myriad has already struck deals for the picture in Germany, the Middle East, Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia and Latin America for pay TV.

"Buyers have gone for it because it is truly timely and is a film about what is happening now," Myriad president Kirk D'Amico said.

Make no mistake, while market attendees are not shouting "the good times are back," there is an air of quiet calm if you come with a good script, talent attached and reasonable budget levels.

So while French company MK2 CEO Nathanael Karmitz thinks there are fewer films in the market overall "and hardly any interesting indie titles from the U.S.," Karmitz said international sales are positive.

MK2 scored pre-sales for Walter Salles' "On the Road" to Icon in the U.K. and Australia, Cineart in Belgium and Concorde Tele Munchen in Germany. German sales agent Telepool sold four films -- "Cargo," "The Door," "Mein Kampf" and Tribeca winner "When We Leave" to Mongrel for Canada; two ("Cargo," "The Door") to Seven Sept for France and two ("Cargo," "Mein Kampf") to CCV for Scandinavia.

Ramy Choi, director of acquisitions and deistribution for Jackie Chan International, reported brisk sales for Chan's most recent picture, "Little Big Soldier," as well as the new slate of movies in which he will star and/or produce. "Soldier" went to the U.K.'s Shadowbox Media Group as well as Italy's One Movie SRL, France's Metropolitan Filmexport, Benelux's Splendid Film and Japan's Presidio. His upcoming star turn in "Drunken Master 1945" attracted buys from Shadowbox, the Middle East's Gulf Film, and distributors in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia/Brunei. The Chan-produced "The Break-Up Artist," starring Lin Peng, went to Shadowbox, One Movie and a host of Middle East and Asian buyers. New company Shadowbox, which is building up its DVD library, and Gulf Film also took rights to such future Chan titles as "Cambodia Landmine," "Tiger Mountain" and "Manhattan."

Confidence could also do with a boost if Japan showed any signs of being back at the top tables.

"Unfortunately, Japan has become an inward-looking territory, one North American sales excutive said. "Because local, less expensive productions seem to be working at the boxoffice there, the buyers are not here spending lots on U.S. product anymore."

So while most agree that, while the days of headline-grabbing deals seem to a part of Cannes' past, the good times may yet return.

-Stay tuned...

Is 'Blue Valentine' becoming one of the darlings of Cannes this year?

Well, in some circles it definitely is. For example, here's what Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger had to say after leaving his screening:

I’ve just come out of a screening of Blue Valentine, starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, and I am now completely gutted. I had heard from colleagues who saw it at Sundance that it was intense, but nothing really could have prepared me for this utterly devastating, completely believable marriage drama. It’s been a while since I saw an on-screen couple as convincing as Gosling and Williams, and if there’s any justice, they’ll both earn their second Oscar nominations for their raw, arresting performances. (Gosling scored a Best Actor nod for Half Nelson, while Williams was recognized in the supporting actress race for Brokeback Mountain.) The film, which I hear has been re-edited since Sundance, will definitely get hit from some quarters as being “too depressing” (there’s no semi-uplifting Precious-style ending here) but I hope that critics, moviegoers, and Oscar voters will deem truth a more important criterion than sunniness. If the seemingly impassioned response from the crowd at today’s Cannes screening is any indication, the new cut was a success.

-Excellent news for this flick and the buzz it built out of Sundance...thoughts?

Here's another Cannes Critics Chart update!

I'll keep bringing this to you as the festival continues...thoughts?

Mike Leigh's 'Another Year' is drawing major interest at Cannes!

Deadline has the story:

The Mike Leigh-directed film Another Year is the first Cannes Festival premiere that has sparked interest from the domestic distributor crowd. Everybody got a look at it this weekend, and I'm hearing that Sony Pictures Classics and The Weinstein Company are in the mix and a deal could happen quick. The film that domestic distributors are most eagerly waiting to see is Biutiful, the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Spanish language film that stars Javier Bardem. The Babel and Amores Perros is a world class auteur. He's gotten world class deals for his recent movies, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The herd of domestic distributors for prestige pictures has thinned, and many of the survivors don't usually traffic in foreign language films. Part of the reason is their ancillary output deals exclude subtitled fare.

-Stay tuned to see where the film lands...thoughts?

Woody Allen's 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger' gets a Cannes Poster!

Thoughts?

Here's a handy French Critic scorecard for Cannes so far!

While not the final word, obviously...this is a decent guide to how things have gone so far. Thoughts?

It's time for Cannes...

...and to celebrate, here's an article on it from The Hollywood Reporter:

Damn the volcanoes, a mini-tsunami and the fear-driven global economy: The show must go on. Marche du Film attendees who've made it through the financial turmoil of the last two years aren't letting a little Icelandic ash or a wet and windy Cannes blow them off course. Sellers are arriving quietly confident that, with slimmer slates and more realistic expectations, sufficient deals will be done to justify the still eyebrow-raising cost of doing business here. "We came out of Berlin very positive. Buyers are more selective, they are more savvy, but they are still buying," said Helen Lee Kim, president of international at Lionsgate. "But nowadays you have to have a project that hits the bullseye, with a clear demo, a crystal-clear marketing concept. Before, if you got it anywhere on the board, you'd get the presales." Lionsgate is hoping to hit the market sweet spot with Marc Forster's action-drama "Machine Gun Preacher," which has Gerard Butler attached as well as futuristic teen gladiator title "Hunger Games," based on the best-selling trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

And while a slightly better Sundance and an almost buoyant Berlin proved that buyers are willing to spend, with fewer slots on shrinking release schedules, anyone able to sign a check still has the upper hand. One U.S. acquisitions chief said few are expecting the unexpected. "Our team is smaller and we are focusing on fewer titles. There's a strong Asian presence in the lineup this year from seriously interesting directors, which usually creates buzz." Tony Jaa's "Ong Bak 3," which Sahamongkolfilm is selling, CJ Entertainment's "The Servant" from director Kim Dae-Woo and Fortissimo's "Norwegian Wood," Anh Hung Tran's adaptation of the Haruki Murakami best-seller, are just a taster of the Far East movies generating heat as Cannes kicks off. "While many films from Asia continue to fall into the art house category, we feel there's a bit of a comeback in commercial interest as the films grow in budget and gain in their technical sophistication," said Fortissimo head Michael Werner. Going into the market, the Cannes Marche head Jerome Paillard said registrations were up 5% on the same period last year. And he expects final numbers to be on par with 2008, marking a recovery from the dip experienced last year. Some 300 companies will be exhibiting in the Palais, with 150 or so more registered but choosing to take hotel suites or apartments in Cannes as offices instead. Of note is the fact that Latin distributors are particularly noticeable this year as exhibitors as are movies being made in 3D. Buyers are less impressed by the festival lineup this year, which remains strongly auteur-driven, with few anticipated as crossover titles. "The festival's taste has stayed the same, full of difficult, challenging and experimental films, but the market has moved on," said Thorsten Ritter, head of Germany's Bavaria International. "It's harder and harder to find a distributor to pay for these festival films." Bavaria's Cannes has a mainstream tilt, including the South African drama "Black Butterflies," from Oscar-nominee Paula van der Oest and starring Carice van Houten and Rutger Hauer. Every rule demands an exception, and Doug Liman's "Fair Game" is the odd one out as the only Competition movie to wear its mainstream sensibilities on its sleeve. E1 Entertainment took U.K. and Irish rights to the real-life drama, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, ahead of its festival bow. But such high-profile pickups for fest titles may be rare. What marketgoers can expect are more creative partnerships between U.S. and international companies as everyone pools their resources to find more efficient, and less risky, ways to produce and sell globally. A just-announced deal between Fox International Productions and Fortissimo Films will see Fortissimo handle international sales on several of Fox's local-language titles. In another U.S-international hook up, French producer/distributor Celluloid Dreams and L.A-based production/sales outfit XYZ Films will use Cannes to launch a joint venture. "The approach these days is, it's all about the Cannes foreign market," said CAA's Micah Green. "We don't care about the domestic. We don't need to presell these movies. The pressure is on selling international at a level consistent or beyond sales agents' expectations." Green also points to future deals being dependent on the balance of the sales agents delivering on their estimates at Cannes this year.

-Thoughts?

Harvey Weinstein to make a splash at Cannes...

...but not in the way you'd expect, according to Deadline:

We hear the deal to put the Miramax name and library under new ownership is done. But the reason there is no announcement is that Harvey Weinstein wants to make a publicity splash at the Cannes Film Festival which kicks off Wednesday. [UPDATE: Harvey's camp just told us: "We'd love to announce at Cannes. We're very close but if you go to Loeb & Loeb on the 25th floor, there are 3 boardrooms of people still negotiating." Deadline stands by its story.]

We've learned that the Weinstein Brothers/Ron Burkle/Fortress-Colbeck partnership has finally settled for a price of around $650 million — which, on the surface, seems like more than Burkle wanted to pay, and less than Disney expected to receive. [UPDATE: The Weinsteins will claim the price is "under $625M", but Disney will privately say it's "above $650M" and more like $700M.]

You may remember that Deadline (which broke the story that Disney was selling the Miramax library in the first place) predicted that the parent company would haggle a higher price than the $625 million Burkle was offering at the start of his exclusive negotiating window with the studio starting April 17th. That window was supposed to remain open for only 5 days, but extended because of a strategic end game.

In order to get the price down for Burkle and up for Disney, both sides engaged in some last minute bargaining over the timetable for expected receivables and the list of included assets. Team Harvey tried to convince Disney to move some or all of those $200M receivables coming in for the next 36 months to the 2009 calendar year, so it would look as if Burkle were paying less for Miramax than he actually is. (Burkle is putting up 1/2 the sale price, with the NY hedge fund Fortress-Colbeck footing the rest. The Weinsteins put up no money.) Meanwhile, Disney stuck firm to its $700 million price, until enough real assets had been taken out of the proposed transaction on the table so the studio didn't feel as if it were selling Miramax at a discount.

Both sides met in the middle on both issues. So don’t believe the hype: the real price Miramax fetched was $700 million. Disney got rid of a defunct asset at a decent price. And Burkle wound up paying above and beyond the $500M it's probably worth. And Harvey and Bob come away with no equity but at least bragging rights to the company named after their parents Miriam and Max, and distribution rights and fees to manage the Miramax library they initially sold to Disney in 1993 for $80 million and then built into 600 titles until the bros were forced to leave it behind in 2005 after a prolonged falling out with Michael Eisner.

One issue that never received any publicity is how Harvey privately used his remaining leverage with Disney to threaten to screw over anyone else who was even thinking of buying Miramax. Under their exit deal in 2005, the Weinstein bros were able to retain a hold over sequel or reboot rights to films like Scream, Spy Kids and some other Dimension titles. Harv, in his inimitable way, was warning Disney and the other buyers that he would do what he could to make developing those projects a nightmare. It was a threat not lost on Disney, which is why the studio is so happy now to be rid of Miramax and finally, Harvey.

But this time, Harvey has met his match in Ron Burkle, who has a history of going to court against anyone involved in his financial investments whom he thinks steps out of line. Just ask Mike Ovitz, Anne Hathaway's former fiance, and Barnes & Noble, which Burkle last week sued over a poison pill provision that prevents him from acquiring 20% or more of the book retailer in order to have a say in how it's run.

-Thoughts?

One more film gets added to the Cannes lineup...

...and it's a new flick from Ken Loach, according to Variety:

In a rare last-minute addition, the Cannes Film Festival will announce today that Ken Loach's Iraq war drama "Route Irish" will be added to this year's 18-film competition.

Sources say that Loach initially declined a Cannes bid for his latest film, but changed his mind only recently and screened it for topper Thierry Fremaux and members of the selection committee. At the time of the April 15 lineup announcement, Fremaux had hinted that a few titles could join the fest late in the game, though speculation was concentrated on films like Olivier Assayas' "Carlos," now playing out of competition, or Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life," which was not ready in time.

"Route Irish" was written by regular Loach scriber Paul Laverty, and tells the story of two ex-soldiers in love with the same woman who head to Iraq to work as private contractors. It's set both in Liverpool and Iraq, where a contractor named Fergus (Mark Womack) returns following the death of his friend along the deadly road (from where pic's title is taken) that links the Green Zone with the airport used by the coalition.

Collaborating for the first time in 20 years with dp Chris Menges, who lensed Loach's 1970 classic, "Kes," the film was shot both in the U.K. and in Jordan, and includes a number of action sequences employing stunts and pyrotechnics -- a rare terrain for the British helmer.

Pic was produced by Loach regular Rebecca O'Brien for Sixteen Films, along with Gallic shingles Why Not Prods. and Wild Bunch, with the latter also handling international sales. It marks Loach's third competish bid in five years: He nabbed the Palme d'Or in 2006 with "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," and joined last year's competish with the Eric Cantona starrer, "Looking for Eric."

-Thoughts?

'Biutiful' gets a Cannes Poster!

Thoughts?

Summit picks up Doug Liman's 'Fair Game' before its Cannes debut...

...perhaps signaling it might be an Oscar contender. Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Two weeks before its Cannes Competition premiere, Doug Liman’s fact-based “Fair Game” has been acquired by Summit Entertainment. The studio has picked up North American distribution rights to the political thriller as well as those in Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia, Japan and CIS.

Starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, the film is based on the memoir written by undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joseph Wilson’s book, “Politics of Truth.” Jez Butterworth and John Butterworth wrote the screenplay.

Producers include Bill Pohlad of River Road Entertainment, Janet and Jerry Zucker of Zucker Prods., Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road Pictures, Liman via his Hypnotic banner, and Jez Butterworth. The film was financed by River Road, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi.

“We choose our partners based on a like-minded philosophy,” said Imagenation Abu Dhabi’s CEO Ed Borgerding. “Participant, River Road and Summit share our commitment to supporting films that not only entertain, but also raise awareness of issues and encourage social change.”

-I'm interested in seeing how it does at Cannes...thoughts?

Cannes picks 'The Tree' to close out their festival...

...but not the 'Tree of Life'. Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Festival de Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux and his selection committee have planted Julie Bertucelli's "The Tree" in the fest's closing-night spot, organizers said Thursday.

The English-language film stars last year's Festival de Cannes best actress winner Charlotte Gainsbourg alongside Marton Csokas and Aden Young in the story of a family mourning the death of the father.

The film is an adaptation of Judy Pascoe's novel "Our Father Who Art in the Tree" and was shot in Australia.

"The Tree" is Bertucelli's second feature after "Since Otar Left," which won the prize for best first film at the 2004 Cesar Awards.

"The Tree" was produced by Les Films du Poisson in co-production with Arte France Cinema and Australia's Taylor media, plus support from Backup Films and a prebuy from Gallic pay TV group Canal Plus.

Actress Kristin Scott Thomas will emcee the closing-night ceremony on May 23.

-Thoughts?