- Title: FRANCE: ANNOUNCEMENT OF 23 FILMS IN COMPETITION DURING THE CANNES FILMS FESTIVAL
- Date: 19th April 2001
- Summary: GV GENERIC OF CANNES FILM FESTIVAL GOLDEN PALM LOGO
- Embargoed: 4th May 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA58C8OAM2BORZC9D02802LD8M3
- Story Text: The heads behind the prestigious Cannes Film Festival - new President Gilles Jacob, General Manager Veronique Cayla, and Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux have unveiled the list of 23 films in competition at the Festival.
Twenty-three films will be in competition in Cannes during the International Film Festival.
Japan will lead an Asian assault with a record seven works on show at Europe's premier movie showcase.
Japan takes centre-stage for the first time this year since Asian cinema took the French Riviera resort by storm during the 1990s. In previous years, China and Hong Kong were seen as the leaders in the emerging Asian powerhouse.
"There is an extraordinary Japanese presence in this year's selection of films," Thierry Fremaux, the festival's artistic director, said on Thursday during his presentation of the line-up for the 2001 edition, which opens on May 9.
Two-time Golden Palm winner Shohei Imamura, one of Japan's foremost directors, will aim for a third triumph with "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge", one of three Japanese films in the festival's main competition.
The United States, somewhat under-represented in recent years, return in force with five films out of the 19 that were selected for the main competition, including opening night choice "Moulin Rouge".
Directed by kitsch-loving Australian Baz Luhrmann, of "Strictly Ballroom" fame, the U.S. production is a musical set in the cabarets of 19th century Paris and stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.
American director Joel Coen, who won the coveted Golden Palm with his brother Ethan in 1991 for "Barton Fink", returns to Cannes with "The Man Who Wasn't There" a year after the Coens' appearance with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?".
Compatriot David Lynch, winner of the 1990 Palm for "Wild at Heart", will compete with "Mullholand Drive", while Sean Penn seeks glory as a director with "The Pledge" to add to his 1997 best actor award for "She's so lovely", by Nick Cassavetes.
An animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio, "Shrek", will compete in the main competition -- only the third full-length animation in the festival's 54-year history and the first not made by Disney.
Cannes regulars Nanni Moretti of Italy, Manoel de Oliveira of Portugal and Jean-Luc Godard, former figurehead of the French New Wave now representing Switzerland, will be among European directors slugging it out with their Asian and U.S.
rivals.
Bosnia will be represented for the first time, by "No Man's Land", directed by Danis Tanovic.
Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann will head the main jury, which also includes former Monty Python comedian turned serious director Terry Gilliam, actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg of France and Julia Ormond of Britain, among others.
Dozens of films will be shown outside of the main competition, including Francis Ford Coppola's new director's cut of the classic "Apocalypse Now", winner of the 1979 Golden Palm.
Martin Scorsese will present "My journey through Italian cinema", a four-hour autobiographical exploration of Italian movies and how they influenced the Italian-American community in Scorsese's native New York City.
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