Cannes will roll out the red carpet on Wednesday for the start of the world’s biggest movie festival, with a line-up of directorial big guns poised to go head-to-head in a year of comebacks, swansongs and star debuts.
Heavyweights David Cronenberg, the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Luc Godard, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach are among the film-makers who will battle it out for the top Palme d’Or prize at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.
Launching the 12-day movie extravaganza with a blast of controversy will be the premiere of Grace of Monaco, the keenly awaited biopic in which Nicole Kidman stars as the former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly.
Already embroiled in not just one but two rows, the film has become a high stakes affair for French director Olivier Dahan who has taken on Grace’s princely family, the Grimaldis, and US distributor Harvey Weinstein in pursuit of his cinematic vision.
Grace’s children, who are not expected at the premiere, have denounced the film’s trailer as a “farce” and accused its makers of hijacking their family history for commercial purposes.
There will, however, be no shortage of star-wattage with Meryl Streep, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Tim Roth and Kristen Stewart among the red carpet possibles.
Double Oscar winner Sophia Loren, 79, one of the last great symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, will supply some old-school glamour when she attends an out-of-competition screening of her latest film The Human Voice.
All eyes will also be on debuts by Canadians Ryan Gosling and Xavier Dolan in Gosling’s Lost River.
And wonder kid Dolan - who at 25 has already had three films screened at Cannes - will make his debut in competition with Mommy.
Eighteen films will be in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or with New Zealand director Jane Campion heading the festival jury. Famed for its winning combination of French Riviera glitz and arthouse gravitas, the festival prides itself on discovering the movie world “auteurs” of tomorrow such as Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino. Festival organisers select only a fraction of the 1,700 films submitted each year to compete for the top prize, with a competition slot at Cannes considered one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed on a director.
