30/04/2008

Programme additions have finally been unveiled for the Official Selection of the 61st Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25).

Three new titles have been added to the list of 19 features vying for the Palme d’Or (see news): Blindness by Brazilian director Fernando Mereilles, which will open the festival; Entre les murs by France’s Laurent Cantet; and Two Lovers by US filmmaker James Gray.

Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened will close the festival, screening out of competition. The film stars Robert de Niro (who will present the 2008 Palme d’Or) and Sean Penn.

The latter is president of the now completed jury (see news), after French actress Jeanne Balibar and Iranian illustrator and director Marjane Satrapi joined the other members.

The Un Certain Regard section will open with UK director Steve McQueen’s Hunger, a debut feature that centres on the final days of the hunger strike that led to Irishman Bobby Sands’ death in 1981.

Cantet (47) will make his Cannes competition debut with his fourth feature, Entre les murs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile] (see news). Winner of the New Directors Award at San Sebastian in 1999, the filmmaker also picked up the Cesar for Best Debut Feature and the Louis Delluc Award for Human Resources.

Cantet also received the Golden Lion in the Cinema of the Present section at Venice in 2001 with Time Out, before being selected in official competition at Venice in 2005 with Heading South [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
interview: Robin Campillo
interview: Simon Arnal-Szlovak
film profile], which scooped the Best Male Newcomer Award.

Entre les murs is adapted from the eponymous book by François Bégaudeau, who plays himself in the film that he co-wrote with the director and Robin Campillo. The film recounts the life of a French teacher in a school in a disadvantaged area, and focuses on a class of 25 pupils aged around 14.

Produced by Caroline Benjo and Carole Scotta for Haut et Court, Entre les murs was made on a budget of €2.48m. This included €500,000 in co-production and pre-sales investment from France 2 Cinéma, a €400,000 advance on receipts from the National Centre for Cinematography (CNC), €384,000 from the Ile-de-France region, pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and backing from the new "Images of Diversity" fund piloted by the CNC, Soficas Cofinova and Soficinéma.

The film is set to be released domestically by Haut et Court and international sales will be handled by Memento Films.

(Translated from French)