(MENAFN- Arab Times) 'Sicario' (Denis Villeneuve). The Canadian director is no stranger to Cannes which screened his films 'Cosmos' (1996 Directors' Fortnight) 'August 32nd on Earth' (1998 Un Certain Regard) and 'Polytechnique' (2009 Directors' Fortnight). Since then Villeneuve has become one of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood and he looks set to crack the competition for the first time with 'Sicario' a crime drama starring Emily Blunt Benicio Del Toro Josh Brolin and Jon Bernthal and set against the backdrop of the Mexican drug trade. Lionsgate is planning to release the film Stateside in September. (Sales: Lionsgate Intl.)
'A Tale of Love and Darkness' (Natalie Portman). Likely to be the highest-profile contender for the Camera d'Or this year Portman's debut is an adaptation of the bestselling autobiography by the Israeli writer Amos Oz chronicling his years growing up in Jerusalem during the 1940s and '50s. The actress-director herself plays the role of Oz's mother. (Sales: Voltage/CAA) Latin American Directors 'Chronic' (Michel Franco). A strong contender for Un Certain Regard and possibly even competition the Mexican helmer's first English-language feature stars Tim Roth as a depressed nurse who assists terminally ill patients. Roth boarded the project after serving as head of the Cannes jury that awarded the Mexican helmer the top Un Certain Regard prize for 'After Lucia' (2012); before that film Franco landed in Directors' Fortnight with his disturbing incest-rape drama 'Daniel and Ana' (2009). (Sales: Wild Bunch) 'The Clan' (Pablo Trapero). This fact-based drama features Argentinean star Guillermo Francella as the patriarch of the notorious Clan Puccio a wealthy Buenos Aires family responsible for a string of horrific kidnappings and murders in the 1980s. Trapero has had three previous films screen in Un Certain Regard: 'El Bonaerense' (2002) 'Carancho' (2010) and 'White Elephant' (2012); if selected for competition 'The Clan' would be his first Palme contender since 2008's 'Lion's Den.' (Sales: Film Factory Entertainment) 'La patota' (Santiago Mitre). A remake of Daniel Tinayre's 1960 film of the same title this Walter Salles-backed thriller examines the repercussions of a brutal attack on a lawyer who has just returned to her hometown from Buenos Aires. Argentinean helmer Mitre scored an international critics' hit in 2011 with his debut 'The Student' and this sophomore effort is said to be on the radar of both the official selection and Directors' Fortnight. (Sales: Versatile) 'A Thousand-Headed Monster' (Rodrigo Pla). Laura Santullo adapts her own novel about a woman who fed up with her corrupt and negligent insurance company takes drastic action to get her husband the medical treatment he needs. It's the fourth feature from Uruguayan director Pla ('The Zone' 'The Desert Within' 'The Delay'). British Directors 'High-Rise' (Ben Wheatley). Wheatley's darkly comic 'Sightseers' (2012) played Directors' Fortnight and he'll be back on the Croisette with this Tom Hiddleston-starring adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel a project that producer Jeremy Thomas has been trying to get made for decades and which was once intended to be directed by Nicolas Roeg. (Sales: HanWay Films) 'Icon' (Stephen Frears). Once floated as a possibility for last year's festival Frears' latest looks set to make its world premiere in a noncompetitive slot like his recent Cannes outings 'Tamara Drewe' (2010) and 'Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight' (2013). Ben Foster plays disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong while Chris Dowd plays David Walsh the dogged Irish sports journalist who helped bring him down. 'Sunset Song' (Terence Davies). A competition slot looks certain for this long-gestating adaptation of Scottish novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1932 classic (pictured above). One of the most revered English directors of his generation Davies was previously at Cannes with his out-of-competition documentary 'Of Time and the City' (2008); he was in competition with 'The Long Day Closes' (1992) and 'The Neon Bible' (1995) and he won the Fipresci prize for his 1988 Directors' Fortnight entry 'Distant Voices Still Lives.' (Sales: Fortissimo Films) French/Belgian Directors 'The Brand New Testament' (Jaco van Dormael). Van Dormael won the Camera d'Or for 'Toto the Hero' (1991) and placed in competition with 'The Eighth Day' (1996) but was passed over for a competition slot for his ambitious sci-fi epic 'Mr. Nobody' (2009). He'll be back on the Croisette with this low-cost high-concept religious satire in which God (played by Benoit Poelvoorde) accidentally sets off a panic after his disgruntled daughter (Yolande Moreau) leaks the apocalyptic plans he had stored on his computer. Catherine Deneuve also appears. (Sales: Le Pacte) 'Close Protection' (Alice Winocour). Cannes seems an ideal spot to unveil this French Riviera-set thriller starring Mathias Schoenaerts as a French Special Forces soldier suffering PTSD after fighting in Afghanistan and Diane Kruger as the wife of his new employer. Winocour's previous film 'Augustine' (2012) premiered in Cannes Critics' Week. (Sales: Indie Sales) 'Erran' (Jacques Audiard). The French auteur has proven himself a specialist in gritty stories from Paris' underbelly and his latest already acquired by IFC's Sundance Selects for Stateside release stars Vincent Rottiers as a Sri Lankan Tamil fighter working as a caretaker on a council estate in the city. Audiard was previously in competition with 1996's 'A Self-Made Hero' (which won a screenplay prize) 2009's 'A Prophet' (which received the Grand Prix) and 2012's 'Rust and Bone'; assuming his latest is finished in time expect it to turn up in competition. (Sales: Wild Bunch) 'Evolution' (Lucile Hadzhihalilovic). More than a decade after making 'Innocence' (2004) her critically acclaimed debut feature set in an all-girls' boarding school Hadzhihalilovic returns with a strange fantasy set in a seaside village where the boys are subjected to bizarre medical experiments. Max Brebant Roxane Duran and Julie-Marie Parmentier star. (Sales: Wild Bunch) 'Les Anarchistes' (Elie Wajeman). Cannes faves Tahar Rahim ('A Prophet' 'The Past') and Adele Exarchopoulos ('Blue Is the Warmest Color') star in this drama about a police sergeant who infiltrates an anarchist group in late-19th-century Paris. It's the sophomore feature by France-based director Wajeman whose 2012 debut 'Aliyah' screened in Directors' Fortnight. (Sales: Wild Bunch) Italian Directors 'Mia madre' (Nanni Moretti). In her third collaboration with Moretti Margherita Buy plays a filmmaker weathering a number of behind-the-scenes crises in this sardonic tragicomedy also starring John Turturro. In addition to his Palme d'Or-winning 'The Son's Room' (2001) Moretti has had five previous films in competition at Cannes: 'Ecce bombo' (1978); 'Dear Diary' (1994) which won him a directing prize; 'Aprile' (1998); 'The Caiman' (2006); and 'We Have a Pope' (2011). (Sales: Films Distribution) 'The Tale of Tales' (Matteo Garrone). A two-time Cannes Grand Prix winner for 'Gomorrah' (2008) and 'Reality' (2012) Garrone ventures into the realm of English-language horror/fantasy with this f/x-heavy adaptation of a collection of fairy tales by the 17th-century Italian author Giambattista Basile. Salma Hayek Vincent Cassel and John C. Reilly star. (Sales: HanWay Films) 'Youth' (Paolo Sorrentino). Sorrentino's English-language drama stars Michael Caine as a retired orchestra conductor who receives an invitation to perform for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. If selected it will mark the Italian auteur's sixth film in competition after 'The Consequences of Love' (2004) 'The Family Friend' (2006) the jury prize-winning 'Il Divo' (2008) 'This Must Be the Place' (2011) and 'The Great Beauty' (2013). (Sales: Pathe) Asian Directors 'The Assassin' (Hou Hsiao-hsien). This Tang Dynasty-era martial-arts epic starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen (the lovers in Hou's 'Three Times') is the Taiwanese auteur's first film since 'Flight of the Red Balloon' which opened the festival's Un Certain Regard sidebar in 2007. It will be his seventh time in competition after 1993's 'The Puppetmaster' (which received a jury prize) 'Good Men Good Women' (1995) 'Goodbye South Goodbye' (1996) 'Flowers of Shanghai' (2008) 'Millennium Mambo' (2001) and 'Three Times' (2007). (Sales: Wild Bunch) 'Journey to the Shore' (Kiyoshi Kurosawa). This adaptation of a novel by Kazumi Yumoto starring Eri Fukatsu as a woman whose husband returns three years after his disappearance could earn the Japanese genre specialist his first Cannes placement since his Un Certain Regard entry 'Tokyo Sonata' (2008). Kurosawa was also in competition with 'Bright Future' (2003) and Un Certain Regard with 'Seance' (2000). (Sales: MK2) 'Kamakura Diary' (Hirokazu Kore-eda). A strong Japanese female cast led by Masami Nagasawa Haruka Ayase and Suzu Hirose headlines this adaptation of Akimi Yoshida's popular serialized comic about four sisters living in the eponymous city. Kore-eda received a jury prize and an ecumenical prize at Cannes just two years ago for 'Like Father Like Son' and he was previously in competition with 'Nobody Knows' (2004) and 'Distance' (2001). His 2009 film 'Air Doll' premiered in Un Certain Regard. (Sales: Wild Bunch) 'Love in Khon Kaen' (Apichatpong Weerasethakul). Formerly titled 'Cemetery of Kings' this dreamlike romantic drama about a lonely housewife who tends a soldier suffering sleeping sickness is the first feature from Weerasethakul (aka Joe) since his Palme d'Or-winning 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' (2010). The Thai director previously won the festival's Un Certain Regard prize for 'Blissfully Yours' (2002) and a jury prize for 'Tropical Malady' (2004). (Sales: Possibly the Match Factory) 'Sweet Red Bean Paste' (Naomi Kawase). Kawase is a Cannes regular having won the Camera d'Or for 'Suzaku' (1997) and the Grand Prix for 'The Mourning Forest' (2007); she was also in competition with 'Shara' (2003) 'Hanezu' (2011) and last year's 'Still the Water.' Her latest film is a relationship drama adapted from Tetsuya Akikawa's novel 'An' about a man and a woman working in the same bakery. (Sales: MK2) Other Territories 'Arabian Nights' (Miguel Gomes). With a six-hour-plus running time this three-part experimental effort from the Portuguese auteur ('Tabu') is likely to clock in as the longest entry in Cannes this year. Filtering his country's social and financial woes through the perspective of a contemporary Scheherazade figure the film would mark Gomes' first return to the Croisette since 'Our Beloved Month of August' (2008) premiered in Directors' Fortnight. (Sales: The Match Factory) 'The Lobster' (Yorgos Lanthimos). Lanthimos won the 2009 Un Certain Regard prize for his attention-grabbing 'Dogtooth' and wound up bypassing a second Un Certain Regard slot in favor of a Venice competition berth for 'Alps' (2011). This time he looks set to crack the big leagues with this love story set in a dystopian future where single people are arrested and forced to find a mate within 45 days. Colin Farrell Rachel Weisz Ben Whishaw Olivia Colman Lea Seydoux and John C. Reilly star in the mostly Irish-financed production. (Sales: Protagonist Pictures) 'Louder Than Bombs' (Joachim Trier). Trier was previously in Un Certain Regard with his well-received 'Oslo August 31st' (2011) and he could return with this drama about the secrets that come to light about a war photographer (Isabelle Huppert) three years after her death in a car accident; Gabriel Byrne and Jesse Eisenberg star as her husband and son respectively. (Sales: Memento Films Intl.) Also in the mix: Greek helmer Athina Rachel Tsangari's 'Chevalier' a follow-up to her Venice-premiered 'Attenberg' looks likely to screen in the official selection as does Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Francofonia: Le Louvre sous l'Occupation' apparently a French companion piece to his 2002 one-shot wonder 'Russian Ark.' Besides Portman's 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' the festival could launch another film addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Amos Gitai's 'Le dernier jour de Rabin' a dramatization of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin makes the cut. Another possibility for the official selection or one of the parallel sidebars is Nicolas Saada's sophomore feature 'Taj Mahal' a thriller set against the backdrop of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai; it stars Stacy Martin Alba Rohrwacher Gina McKee and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. Finally the Romanians are never to be counted out at Cannes and at least three of them have films that should be ready in time: Radu Muntean's road movie 'One Floor Below' a follow-up to 2010's Un Certain Regard entry 'Tuesday After Christmas'; Corneliu Porumboiu's 'The Treasure' which could mark his first Cannes appearance since 'Police Adjective' (2009); and Florin Serban's relationship drama 'Box' his first feature since his 2010 Berlin jury prize winner 'If I Want to Whistle I Whistle.'
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