‘Only God Forgives,’ ‘Nebraska,’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis,’ ‘The Past’ & More Lead Official Selection For 2013 Cannes Film Festival

As usual, sifting the actual fact from the speculation when it comes to the line-up of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival has been a little tricky. We know the opener — Baz Luhrmann‘s “The Great Gatsby,” the closer — “Zulu,” with Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, and as of yesterday, the Un Certain Regard headliner, in the shape of Sofia Coppola‘s “Bling Ring.”

But aside from the occasional film that’s been taken out of the running properly, like Bong Joon-Ho‘s “Snowpiercer,” the field’s still been wide open. Until this morning, that is — the line-up for the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled. And as ever, there’s plenty of gold to be found If you’ve had your ears close to the ground, and there were few surprises. As expected, Steven Soderbergh‘s “Behind The Candelabra,” Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “Only God Forgives,” The Coen Brothers‘ “Inside Llewyn Davis” and James Gray‘s latest (albeit now retitled “The Immigrant“) were among the biggest announcements, along with “The Past,” the new film from “A Separation” director Asghar Farhadi.

More surprising, although still tipped by some, were new films by Roman Polanski (stage adaptation “Venus In Fur“), Alexander Payne‘s “Nebraska,” Arnaud Desplechin‘s English-language “Jimmy P,” and the latest from Francois Ozon, “Jeune Et Jolie.” The likes of Paolo Sorrentino, Alex Van Warmerdam, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Abdellatif Kechiche made up the rest of the official selection, which you can see in full below. 

Cannes favorite Gray made a second appearance out of competition, as the co-writer of Guillaume Canet‘s “Blood Ties,” which stars Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis and Matthias Schoenaerts, while J.C. Chandor‘s “Margin Call” follow-up “All Is Lost,” starring Robert Redford, also gets a bow away from the official selection. A second HBO movie also crops up, with Stephen Frears‘ “Muhammad Ali’s Final Fight,” starring Benjamin Walker, Christopher Plummer, Danny Glover and Frank Langella, getting a special screening alongside a second Polanski film, a restoration of his motor racing documentary “Week End Of A Champion.”

Meanwhile, the organizers seemed to take little notice of the criticism last year of the male-centric nature of the line-up, with only one female director in competition, and others pushed to the sidebar Un Certain Regard section; alongside the previously announced Sofia Coppola film, Claire Denis‘ “The Bastards” will also premiere there. They’re joined by James Franco‘s “As I Lay Dying,” and Sundance favorite “Fruitvale Station,” among others. That aside, it’s a typically exciting line-up, and we’ll be on the Croisette once again to cover many of these films when the festival kicks off on May 15th.

Opening Film
“The Great Gatsby” (dir. Baz Luhrmann)

Official Selection
“Behind The Candelabra” (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
“Borgman” (dir. Alex Van Warmerdam)
“Un Chateau En Italie” (dir. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi)
“La Grande Bellezza” (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
“Grisgris” (dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
“Heli” (dir. Amat Escalante)
“The Immigrant” (dir. James Gray)
“Inside Llewyn Davis” (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
“Jeune Et Jolie” (dir. Francois Ozon)
“Jimmy P” (dir. Arnaud Desplechin)
“Michael Kohlhaas” (dir. Arnaud Despallieres)
“Nebraska” (dir. Alexander Payne)
“Only God Forgives” (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)
“The Past” (dir. Asghar Farhadi”)
“Soshite Chichi Ni Naru” (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
“Tian Zhu Ding” (dir. Zhangke Jia)
“Venus In Fur” (dir. Roman Polanski)
“La Vie D’Adele” (dir. Abdellatif Kechiche)
“Wara No Tate” (dir. Takashi Miike)

Out Of Competition
“All Is Lost” (dir. J.C Chandor)
“Blood Ties” (dir. Guillaume Canet)

Un Certain Regard
“Anonymous” (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
“As I Lay Dying” (dir. James Franco)
“Bends” (dir. Flora Lau)
“The Bling Ring” (dir. Sofia Coppola)
“Death March” (dir. Adolfo Alix Jr)
“Fruitvale Station” (dir. Ryan Coogler)
“Grand Central” (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)
“L’Image Manquante” (Rithy Panh)
“L’Inconnu Du Lac” (dir. Alain Guiraudie)
“La Jaula De Oro” (dir. Diego Quemada)
“Miele” (dir. Valeria Golino)
“Norte, Hangganana Ng Kasaysayan” (dir. Lav Diaz)
“Omar” (dir. Hany Abu-Assad)
“Les Salauds” (dir. Claire Denis)
“Sarah Prefere La Course” (dir. Chloe Robichaud)

Midnight
“Blind Detective” (dir. Johnnie To)
“Monsoon Shootout” (dir. Amit Kumar)

Special Screening
“Max Rose” (dir. Daniel Noah)
“Weekend Of A Champion” (dir. Roman Polanski)
“Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (dir. Stephen Frears)
“Stop The Pounding Heart” (dir. Roberto Minervini)
“Seduced & Abandoned” (dir. James Toback)
“Otdat Konci” (dir. Taisia Igumentseva)
“Bombay Talkies” (dir. Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar)

Closing Film
“Zulu” (dir. Jérôme Salle)