Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers and Gus Van Sant — all past winners of the Cannes Film Festival — are in the running for a second trophy as the French Riviera festival celebrates its 60th anniversary next month.
Tarantino will show his killer-on-wheels movie “Death Proof,” the Coens will play their Rio Grande adventure “No Country for Old Men,” and Van Sant will screen “Paranoid Park,” about a skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.
The four Americans have already won the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top prize. Bosnian director Emir Kusturica has taken it twice. His new movie at Cannes is “Promise Me This,” organizers said Thursday as they announced the lineup for the May 16-27 festival.
The opening-night movie, “My Blueberry Nights,” is from another Cannes veteran, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai. It stars singer Norah Jones in her acting debut, as well as Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz.
Cannes strives every year for a lineup that hits just the right balance of Hollywood blockbusters and small art-house films, mixing in surprise hits by unknowns and the occasional scandal-sparking screening. The pressure is on this year as Cannes celebrates a major anniversary.
Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob said he strove to “mix heritage and modernity, great filmmakers and start-ups.”
Of the 22 films in the lineup, 13 are by directors who have never appeared in the main competition before.
Newcomer David Fincher (“Fight Club”) will compete with “Zodiac,” about the hunt for the serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s.
Cartoonist Marjane Satrapi will show the screen adaptation of her graphic novel “Persepolis,” a memoir of growing up in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Her co-director is Vincent Paronnaud.
American painter Julian Schnabel, who made the movie “Before Night Falls,” is showing a French-language movie. “Le Scaphandre et le Papillon” (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”) is based on a memoir by a French magazine editor who became paralyzed after a stroke and learned to write again by blinking his eyelid into a sensor.
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Celebrity Sightings
Some of the most highly awaited movies are not in the running for prizes. Michael Moore, who won the Palme d’Or for “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004, will be back with another irreverent documentary, “Sicko,” about health care in America.
“Ocean’s 13” will screen, as will “A Mighty Heart,” with Angelina Jolie playing the widow of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and slain in Pakistan.
Martin Scorsese doesn’t have a movie at Cannes, but he’ll be busy. The Oscar-winning director (“The Departed”) will give a master class on moviemaking to students and film buffs, and he’ll announce the creation of a new cinema foundation. He won Cannes’ top prize with “Taxi Driver” in 1976.
British director Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) leads the jury at the festival. The Palme d’Or and other awards will be announced May 27.
Among filmmakers in the running, the Coens already won the Palme d’Or in 1991 for “Barton Fink.” Tarantino won in 1994 for “Pulp Fiction,” and Van Sant was honored in 2003 for “Elephant.” Kusturica won twice: in 1985 for “When Father Was Away on Business” and again in 1995 for “Underground.”