Cannes 2011 Lineup Announced; Features Films From Terrence Malick, Lars Von Trier And Lynne Ramsay

Finally, the speculation can end.

The minds behind this year’s Cannes Film Festival have announced the slate for the said festival, and it’s one of the more jaw-dropping lineups of recent memory.

First up, the biggest addition here is, to no one’s shock, Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life. The film is now confirmed for the festival, and not only that, but it will be shown in competition, a first for director Terrence Malick. Other names that were previously linked to the festival like Pedro Almodovar (The Skin That I Live In), Lars Von Trier (Melancholia) and Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin) have also now been confirmed, all in competition.

Joining them in competition are new films from The Dardenne Brothers (The Kid With The Bike), Aki Kaurismaki (Le Havre), and most notably, Nicholas Winding Refn, and his new film Drive. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, and was not nearly in the talks of possibly showing on the Croisette. By low and behold, the hotly anticipated thriller will be doing just that.

Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, which I had the chance to see at SXSW, will be shown out of competition in what will likely be a heavily publicized red carpet, and joins Kung Fu Panda 2 and Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as likely the biggest name projects heading to the festival. This is an absolutely killer list of films, all of which could not be more anticipated, particularly films like Melancholia and The Kid With The Bike. From top to bottom, indie to blockbuster, this is a really top notch list.

Here’s the full lineup. What film are you looking forward to?

In Competition:
‘The Skin That I Live In’ – Pedro Almodovar
‘L’Apollonide’’ – Betrand Bonello
‘Footnote’ – Joseph Cedar
‘Paterre’ – Alain Cavalier
‘Once Upon A Time In Anatolia’ – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
‘The Kid With The Bike’ – The Dardenne Brothers
‘Le Havre’ – Aki Kaurismaki
‘Hanezu no Tsuki’ – Naomi Kawase
‘Sleeping Beauty’ – Julia Leigh
‘Tree of LIfe’ – Terrence Malick
‘La Source de Femmes’ – Radu Mihaileanu
‘Polisse’ – MaÃ¯wenn Le Besco
‘Harakiri’ – Takashi Miike
‘We Have A Pope’ – Nanni Moretti
‘Melancholia’ – Lars Von Trier
‘This Must Be The Place’ – Paolo Sorrentino
‘Drive’ – Nicholas Winding Refn
‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ – Lynne Ramsay

Un Certain Regard:
‘Restless’ – Gus Van Sant
‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ – Sean Durkin
‘The Hunter’ – Bazur Bakuradze’
‘Halt auf freier Strecke’ – Andreas Dresen
‘Skoonheid’ – Oliver Hermanus
‘Hors Satan’ – Bruno Dumont
Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro’ – Robert Guédiguian
‘The Days He Arrives’ – Hong Sang-Soo
‘Bonsai’ – Christian Jimenez
‘Tatsumi’ – Erik Khoo
‘En maintenant, on va ou?’ – Nadine Labaki
‘Ariang’ – Kim Ki Duk
‘Loverboy’- C?t?lin Mitulescu,
‘Toomelah’ – Ivan Sen
‘Yellow Sea’ – Na Hong-Jin,
‘Miss Bala’ – Gerardo Naranjo,
‘L’exercice de l’Etat’ – Pierre Schoeller,
‘Oslo, August 31st’ Joachim Trier
‘Travailler fatigue’ – Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra

Out of Competition:
‘The Beaver’ – Jodie Foster
‘The Artist’ – Michel Hazanavicius
‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ – Rob Marshall
‘La Conquete’ – Xavier Durringer
‘Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom Of Doom’ – Jennifer Yuh

Special Screenings:
‘Labrador’ – Frederikke Aspock
‘Le maÃ®tre des forges de l’enfer’ – Rithy Panh
‘Un documentaire sur Michel Petrucciani’ – Michael Radford
‘Tous au Larzac’ – Christian Rouaud