Fest president Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Frémaux announced the official selection of the 64th Cannes Film Festival at the Grand Hôtel in Paris today. And what a line-up it is.Cannes favorites Pedro Almodóvar, the Dardenne brothers, Lars Von Trier, Nanni Moretti, Radu Mihaileanu and Aki Kaurismäki are on the prestigious list, as well as four female filmmakers. As previously reported, Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, will get its worldwide premiere in Cannes. Penn will also walk up the famous red carpet stairs for Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be the Place.The 19-strong list also includes two newcomers. Julia Leigh and Markus Schleinzer are competing with their first feature films, Sleeping Beauty , starring Sucker Punch's Emily Browning, and Michael. Leigh is one of four women directors recognized by the fest this year, alongside Naomi Kawase, Lynne Ramsay and French-born Maïwenn, who was once married to Luc Besson and has enjoyed more success as a director than an actress over the past few years. The selection for Un Certain Regard, which will open with Gus Van Sant's Restless also features an eclectic mix of filmmakers. Full details after the jump.OFFICIAL SELECTION
Midnight in Paris â Woody Allen (opening)
La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In) - Pedro Almodóvar
LâApollonide â Souvenirs de la maison close (House of Tolerance) - Bertrand Bonello
Hearat Shulayim (Footnote) by Joseph Cedar
Pater by Alain Cavalier
Bir Zamanlar Anadoluâda (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Le Gamin au Vélo (Boy With a Bike) - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Le Havre - Aki Kaurismäki
Hanezu no Tsuki - Naomi Kawase
Sleeping Beauty - Julia Leigh
Polisse - Maïwenn
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick
La Source des femmes (The Source) - Radu Mihaileanu
Ishimei (Hara-Kiri : Death of a Samurai) - Takashi Miike
Habemus Papam - Nanni Moretti
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay
Michael - Markus Schleinzer
This Must Be the Place - Paolo Sorrentino
Melancholia - Lars Von Trier
Drive - Nicolas Winding Refn
UN CERTAIN REGARD selection
Restless â Gus Van Sant (opening)
The Hunter - Bakur Bakuradze
Halt Auf Freier Strecke - Andreas Dresen
Hors Satan - Bruno Dumont
Martha Marcy May Merlene - Sean Durkin
Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro - Robert Guédiguian
Skoonheid - Oliver Hermanus
The Day He Arrives - Hong Sangsoo
Bonsai - Cristián Jimenez
Tatsumi - Eric Khoo
Arirang - Kim Ki-duk
Et Maintenant On Va Où? - Nadine Labaki
Loverboy - Catalin Mitulescu
Yellow Sea - Na Hong-jin
Miss Bala - Gerardo Naranjo
Trabalhar Cansa (Hard Labor) - Julina Rojas and Marco Dutra
L'Exercice de L'Etat (The Minister) - Pierre Schoeller
Toomelah Oslo, August 31st - Joachim Trier
The members of the jury, presided this year by Robert DeNiro, will be announced sometime next week. The juries of the side competitions will also be helmed by notable filmmakers: Michel Gondry will preside the Short Film and Cinéfondation juries; Emir Kusturica -Un Certain Regard; and Bong Joon-Ho - Caméra d'Or.
Out-of-competition premieres are just as exciting and include Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides, with Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz rumored to be attending the red carpet, Antoine Charreyronâs 3D animated epic The Prodigies, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom and Jodie Fosterâs The Beaver (Jodie Foster is attending, but will Mel?).
French president Nicolas Sarkozy will also premiere in Cannes, or rather his biopic La Conquête (The Conquest) on May 18. While many question the choice of Cannes to debut Xavier Durringer's movie, which will hit French theaters on the same day, Thierry Frémaux told reporters at the press conference this morning that fest organizers had ânot had any sort of pressure to accept it, or to not accept it.â Another French âheroâ will also hit the Croisette. OSS 117, the popular French James Bond movie franchise directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin, will return in a black-and-white comedy about a silent movie star called The Artist. Dujardin's co-stars include John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle and Berenice Bejo.
Woody Allenâs Midnight in Paris, which will kick off the fest on May 11 with an all-star international cast, including French First Lady Carla Bruni. Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci will receive an honorary Palme d'Or on the same evening.
The festival will also mark the 40th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange with a screening of the restored print of Stanley Kubrick's classic movie.