Great Filmmakers to the Croisette

The Cannes Film Fest looks to me like an oasis now, a shimmering watery escape from the blandness of this year’s Oscar race. Having attended Cannes for the first time last year, I was stunned to discover a place where people cared more about how good the film was than how much it made or how many Oscars it would win. I fully expect to see the same this year, whether any of those films eventually make it to the Kodak or not is so beside the point. Vive la diff√©rence. The Guardian has tipped us off as to what and who might be showing up this year:

Past masters look set to dominate the Cannes film festival, with new pictures from Gus van Sant, Nanni Moretti, Lars von Trier and the Dardenne brothers tipped to feature in this year’s competition. All are former winners of the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or award.

Other Cannes award-winners poised to return to the Croisette include Aki Kaurismaki, Pedro Almod√≥var and David Cronenberg. The festival may also play host to Shame, the new work from Hunger director Steve McQueen, along with Andrea Arnold‘s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

According to the film website cineuropa.org, Moretti will be in competition with We Have a Pope, the Dardennes with Le Havre and Van Sant with Restless, based on Jason Lew’s play about two lovers waiting to die. Von Trier, meanwhile, will return with Melancholia, a dystopian drama starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and Kirsten Dunst. The Danish director famously provoked a storm of protest when he premiered his previous film, Antichrist, at the 2009 event.

Other possible contenders include Walter Salles‘s adaptation of On the Road and Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, both of which feature Viggo Mortensen ‚Äì the latter as Sigmund Freud. It also seems likely that this year’s event will witness the belated unveiling of The Tree of Life, an inter-generational drama starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Directed by the reclusive Terrence Malick, the film was originally tipped to premiere at last year’s Cannes film festival.

Cannes Film Fest begins May 11, 2011.