All the fun of the festival

As we mentioned in our news roundup, the 61st Cannes Film Festival begins on 14^th May. As usual there will be a broad selection of films on show encompassing the mainstream, the indie, the wonderful and the just plain weird with anyone and everyone who has a film to plug turning up (Lurid green thongs optional.)

President of the feature film competition this year is left wing Hollywood darling Sean Penn (who also appears in the festival’s closing film What Just Happened?). Natalie Portman and Alfonso Cuaron are the other more familiar names on a jury featuring industry figures from as far afield as France, Mexico and Thailand. As mentioned in the previous post, the competition will be launched by Fernando Merirelles’ Blindness, with 22 films in all competing for the coverted Palme D’Or, presented this year by Robert De Niro.

As well as the main prize there’s also the ‘Un Certain Regard’ (a varied mix of world cinema) and short films competitions to keep an eye on, as well as the films "out of competition" which include Woody Allen’s latest Vicky Cristina Barclelona. Indie National of course will be keeping you up to date with the winners. But away from the highbrow contenders (and Indiana Jones), the most fun to be had at Cannes is arguably found in Marché du Film. This commercial counterpart of the festival is the largest film market in the world, and is the reason why sights like Jerry Seinfeld in a giant bee suit jostle with the luminaries of art cinema on the beachfront. Purists may turn up their noses, but this cinematic meat market is vital for getting interest in your project, especially for smaller films. But that’s what’s so fascinating about Cannes: from high art to cold hard cash – all aspects of the film industry crammed into one location for 11 days.

Interestingly, festival organisers claim that the tone of this year’s festival is provided by the work of David Lynch. Apparently, the poster artist Pierre Collier has “designed an aesthetic environment for festival goers that can be seen outside and inside the Palais, as though declaring it the land of film.” Hopefully for festival goers this doesn’t mean that searching for the ladies loos will become a nightmarish journey through America’s dark side (possibly featuring lesbian dwarfs) , but then, you never do know what to expect at Cannes.