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April 20, 2006
CANNES LINE-UP ANNOUNCED
With Wong Kar-wai and Zhang Ziyi on the jury you'd think they could do better than this, but Cannes has announced their line-up and they've only got one Asian film in competition: Lou Ye's SUMMER PALACE. Which is weird because the last I heard this flick still hadn't been approved by Mainland censors and we all know it's bad form to announce a film is in your festival before Chinese officials say it's in your festival. Maybe they fast-tracked it?
Johnnie To's ELECTION 2 and Su Chao-pin's SILK (the Taiwanese horror film) are official Cannes selections but they're in the Midnight Screenings, which isn't nearly as prestigious since that means they're not in competition (I think, can anyone confirm if the midnight shows are in or out?). But at least the DA VINCI CODE made it in there. Phew!
The non-competitive Un Certain Regard was also announced and there're a few more Asian movies in there. They must be out of their minds, but the Pang Brothers' RECYCLE is there, as are Wang Chao's LUXURY CAR and Yoon Jong-Bin's THE UNFORGIVEN.
April 20, 2006 at 06:34 AM in News | Permalink
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The midnight screenings are out of competition. I suspect Election 2 lost its shot at the competition when they decided to premiere it at the HKIFF and release it commercially ahead of the Cannes fest (it's pretty rare that Cannes will put an already-released flim in the main competition), but that's just speculation on my part. I wonder what happened to Hana, Still Life and Time...
Posted by: JeanMichel | Apr 20, 2006 4:40:12 PM
Incidentally, The Da Vinci Code isn't in competition either (as is usual with the opening film).
Posted by: JeanMichel | Apr 20, 2006 4:41:59 PM
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" premiered at HKIFF, but it still got competition slot at Cannes.
"The Da Vinci Code" is in GALA SCREENINGS section. "Election 2" is in MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS section. GALA SCREENINGS is higher-profile than MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS.
The producer of "Election" said that Cannes competition slot helps "Election" to do well in foreign sell.... Losing Cannes competition slot, I think that "Election 2" won't do well in foreign sell....
Posted by: No name | Apr 20, 2006 5:28:13 PM
Films are allowed to play in competition as long as they haven't premiered anywhere other than their native country. I don't think ELECTION 2 would be barred from competition because it played the HKIFF. If it's anywhere near as good as its predecessor, it deserves a slot there. However, playing in competition didn't help ELECTION find an American distributor or make it into the Toronto or New York film festivals.
Posted by: Steve | Apr 20, 2006 8:41:19 PM
Playing in competition did help ELECTION to find distributors in more than 21 countries. (including Spain, Italy, France, UK, Japan, Germany, Australia....)
Posted by: No name | Apr 20, 2006 8:57:30 PM
It seems to me distributors would be more likely to use Election 1's local performance in determining whether to pick up the sequel. If Election 1 does well enough, there's no reason a local distributor wouldn't pick up part two; if Election 1 underperforms, I doubt they'd be interested in the sequel even if it did make the competition.
And thanks to Steve for clearing up the eligiblity criteria -- I wasn't aware there were any hard and fast rules on this matter, I just figured it came down to whether the selection committee was willing to make an exception.
Posted by: JeanMichel | Apr 20, 2006 10:22:35 PM
A quick update on SUMMER PALACE in the words of everyone's favorite MonkeyPeaches:
"The producer of "Summer Palace" say that this movie can get competition slot at Cannes because the international sale of "Summer Palace" had sent the 140 minutes rough cut to Cannes. Now, "Summer Palace" gets competition slot, the producer of "Summer Palace" says they will try to do their best. He expect "Summer Palace" can be sent to the China censorship authorities 10 days later. But the producer also expect the China censorship authorities will [edit] the movie, because the 140 minutes rough cut has some sex scenes in it."
Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Apr 25, 2006 5:08:25 AM
Some corrections for Cannes:
I said that ELECTION 2 only in Out of Competition are bad.... it may not be....
In fact, both ELECTION and SILK were shown in Lumiere auditorium, where all Competition movies and some noncompeting movies will be shown. Being shown in Lumiere auditorium is a very big honor.
More detail ---- the 2004 article about Cannes in Variety.
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=cannes2004&content;=preview&articleid;=VR1117904416
"Reality: Official Selection encompasses films in and out of Competition. It comprises Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard, the Short Film Competition and CineFondation. This year, 18 Competition titles will be shown in the Palais des Festivals' main Lumiere auditorium (red-carpeted stairs) and vie for the Golden Palm and other jury awards. A few additional noncompeting films will enjoy the undeniable prestige of being shown in that theater as part of the official lineup. (Evening shows at the Lumiere are black-tie affairs -- daytime screenings can be tie-dye so long as you have the appropriate accreditation badge or a counterfeit-proof ticket.) "
Posted by: no name | Jun 2, 2006 6:30:19 PM
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