2014 Cannes Film Festival Lineup

     Early this morning, the film lineup for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival was announced and nothing is really standing out, at least from an American film perspective. No big standouts like Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight or J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year. Having said (written) that, there are a lot of interesting looking films from the usual Cannes club of directors. Films from Ken Loach, the Dardenne brothers, David Cronenberg, Xavier Dolan and Mike Leigh are all premiering and all look exceptional. It is just a little lackluster. No No Country for Old Men or Nebraska. The only real high-caliber film out of America that is showing is Bennett Miller's highly anticipated Foxcatcher, starring Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carrell. I am also interested to see how Ryan Gosling's directorial debut Lost River (aka How to Catch a Monster) turns out. We still have the Director's Fortnight and Critics' Week selections to go. More films will be announced later, but I really wanted to find out the goods on Birdman and Inherent Vice. Anticipation waits. Here is a complete list of the films announced so far. The festival runs from May 14 - 25. Enjoy.

OPENING NIGHT FILM

• Grace of Monaco   d. Olivier Dahan

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

• The Captive   d. Atom Egoyan
• Foxcatcher   d. Bennett Miller
• Goodbye to Language   d. Jean-Luc Godard (in 3D)
• The Homesman   d. Tommy Lee Jones 
• Jimmy's Hall   d. Ken Loach
• Leviafan   d. Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Maps to the Stars   d. David Cronenberg
• Le meraviglie   d. Alice Rohrwacher
• Mommy   d. Xavier Dolan
• Mr. Turner   d. Mike Leigh
• Saint Laurent   d. Bertrand Bonello
• The Search   d. Michel Hazanavicus
• Clouds of Sils Maria   d. Olivier Assayas
• Still the Water   d. Naomi Kawase
• Timbuktu   d. Abderrahmane Sissako    
• Two Days, One Night   Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
• Wild Tales   d. Damián Szifron
• Winter Sleep   d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

UN CERTAIN REGARD

• Party Girl   d. Mari Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis
• Amour Fou   d. Jessica Hausner
• Bird People   d. Pascale Ferran 
• The Blue Room   d. Mathieu Amalric
• Charlie's Country   d. Rolf de Heer
• The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby   d. Ned Benson
• Fantasia   d. Wang Chao
• A Girl at My Door   d. July Jung
• Harcheck mi headro   d. Keren Yedaya
• Jauja   d. Lisandro Alonso
• Lost River   d. Ryan Gosling
• Incompresa  d. Asia Argento
• Run   d. Philippe Lacôte
• The Salt of the Earth   d. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
• Snow in Paradise   d. Andrew Hulme
• Titli   d. Kanu Behl
• Turist   d. Ruben Östlund
• Hermosa juventud   d. Jaime Rosales
• Xenia   d. Panos H. Koutras

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

• The Rover   d. David Michôd
• The Salvation   d. Kristian Levring
• The Target   d. Yoon Hong-Seung

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

• Bridges of Sarajevo   d. various directors
• Caricaturists: Fantasies of Democracy   d. Stéphanie Valloatto
• Eau argentee   d. Mohammed Ossama
• Maidan   d. Sergei Loznitsa
• Red Army   d. Gabe Polsky

OUT OF COMPETITION

• Coming Home   d. Zhang Yimou
• Les gens du monde   d. Yves Jeuland
• How to Train Your Dragon 2   d. Dean DeBlois

Photo credit by theguardian.com.