23/04/2003 - Programme of 56th edition (14-25 May) announced in Paris: very few Americans, five French titles in competition, a tribute to Jeanne Moreau and a Fellini retrospective

The films selected for the 56th Cannes Film Festival were finally revealed at a press conference held today, 23 April, in Paris by Gilles Jacob, the president of the Festival, delegate general Véronique Cayla and artistic director, Thierry Frémaux.
One quarter of the twenty films selected for competition are French : les côtelettes by Bertrand Blier, Tiresia by Bertrand Bonello, La petite Lili by Claude Miller, Swimming Pool [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by François Ozon and les Egarés by André Téchiné. Six Europeans will also compete for the Palme d’Or: Denmark’s Lars von Trier with Dogville [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Italy’s Pupi Avati with Il Cuore Altrove, Russia’s Alexandre Sokurov with Father and Son, Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan with Uzak, the UK’s Peter Greenaway with The Moab Story – The Tulse Luper Suitcase and Chilean-born-but-French-resident, Raul Ruiz with his Swiss co-production entitled Ce jour là.
Clint Eastwood, Vincent Gallo and Gus Van Sant; as well as three Asian titles by Kyoshi Kurosawa, Naomi Kawase and Ye Lu; one each from Iran’s Samira Makhmalbaf’s, Brazil’s Hector Babenco and Canada’s Denys Arcand.

Eight Europeans were selected for Un Certain Regard, which this year will award not one but three prizes. The most eagerly awaited titles have to be Italian Marco Tullio Giordana’s five-hour-long La Meglio Gioventù, the directorial debut of the UK’s Emily Young entitled Kiss of Life and the features by Spain’s Marc Recha, France’s Arnaud Desplechin and Franco-Icelander Solveig Anspach.

Sidebar events to the Festival proper include a meeting between the filmmakers in Cannes and the all-new EU’s 25 ministers for culture, scheduled for 15 May. This year’s special guests include Emir Kusturica, president of the short film jury and Wim Wenders, head of the Caméra d’Or section. Oliver Stone will hold this year’s Cinema Masterclass. Cannes will pay tribute to Jeanne Moreau and the late and great Maurice Pialat and Daniel Toscan du Plantier. On the 10th anniversary of his death, Cannes will also hold a retrospective dedicated to Federico Fellini.

In Competition
Samira Makhmalbaf - A Cinq Heures De L'après-Midi (IR)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Akarui Mirai (JP)
Hector Babenco - Carandiru (BR/AR)
Raoul Ruiz - Ce Jour-Là (FR)
Lars Von Trier - Dogville (DK/SE/IT/NO/NL/FI/DE)
Gus Van Sant - Elephant (US)
Pupi Avati - Il Cuore Altrove (IT)
Claude Miller - La Petite Lili (FR)
Bertrand Blier - Les Côtelettes (FR)
André Téchiné - Les Égarés (FR)
Denys Arcand - Les Invasions Barbares (CA/FR)
Clint Eastwood - Mystic River (US)
Alexandre Sokourov - Père Et Fils (RU/NL/FR/DE)
Ye Lou - Purple Butterfly (CN)
Naomi Kawase - Shara (JP)
François Ozon - Swimming Pool (FR)
Vincent Gallo - The Brown Bunny (US)
Peter Greenaway - The Moab Story / The Tulse Luper Suitcase - Part I (UK/ES/IT/NL/RU/HU/LU)
Bertrand Bonello - Tiresia (FR/CA)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Uzak (TR)

Out of Competition
Michael Haneke - Le Temps Du Loup (AT/FR)
Sylvain Chomet - Les Triplettes De Belleville (FR)
Lester James - Peries Mansion By The Lake (LK)
Gilles Marchand - Qui A Tué Bambi ? (FR)
Andy e Larry Wachowski - Matrix Reloaded (US)
João César Monteiro - Va Et Vient (PT)

(Translated from French)