Walter Salles’ On the Road, Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy and Michael Haneke’s Amour will join Rust and Bone by Jacques Audiard and David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis for a trip to the 65th annual Cannes Film Festival.

Also screening in the competition are Holy Motors by Leos Carax, The Angels’ Share by Ken Loach, John Hillcoat’s Lawless, which stars Shia LaBoeuf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce and Gary Oldman alongside Jessica Chastain in a Prohibition-era drama, and more U.S. titles such as Jeff Nichols’ Mud and Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta. All in all, U.S. filmmakers will have a strong presence on the Croisette this year.

President Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Fremaux announced the official selection for the May 16-27 festival at a press conference in Paris late Thursday morning.

While the 2011 competition lineup was light on U.S. directors and star power, the Cannes team certainly made up for it this year. “American cinema has come back relatively en force,” Fremaux said.

Pitt, Robert Pattinson, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard and Matthew McConaughey — who both have multiple projects in Cannes — will add glam to the fest as they make their way down the world’s most famous cinema catwalk.

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Ahead of its French theatrical release on May 17 the first stills and a French trailer has been released for ‘De Rouille et d’Os‘ (Rust & Bone). Doesn’t it look very promising? Go here for an English synopsis.

Gallery:
002 De rouille et d’os (Rust and Bone) – 2012 > Stills
049 De rouille et d’os (Rust and Bone) – 2012 > Screencaptures > Trailer

Video:
001 Trailers > De Rouille et d’Os

Filming for ‘Low Life‘ (Untitled James Gray Project) wrapped earlier this month and a wrap party was held at The Electric Room on March 18. NY Post Page Six reports:

Marion Cotillard handed out gifts to fellow cast and crew at a wrap party Sunday night for the untitled, 1920s James Gray-directed project she filmed with Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner. Cotillard, who came with partner Guillaume Canet, fashioned giant clothespins for each cast and crew member with his or her name and unique decorations, and passed them out all night during the party at Nur Khan’s Electric Room in the Dream Downtown.

The movie is currently in post-production for 15 weeks and director James Gray hopes to have it ready for the Toronto International Film Festival when he spoke to The Playlist:

I think it’s going to be my best work. What I shot was not just my best work, but the actors doing their best and I’m very excited about it for that reason. I’m extremely excited, like I said it’s the best thing I’ve done.

The French theatrical release date for ‘Un goût de rouille et d’os ‘ (Rust & Bone) has been pushed forward from October to May 17, 2012 – the day after the Cannes Film Festival opens. This is most likely confirmation of the rumours that the movie will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Earlier this month new casting for Guillaume Canet’s upcoming movie ‘Blood Ties‘ was announced via The Hollywood Reporter. Mark Wahlberg is no longer attached to the project but Clive Owen came on board the adaptation of the French novel Les liens du sang. Additionally to Zoe Saldana and Marion Cotillard her ‘Big Fish‘ co-star Billy Crudup and fellow Dior muse Mila Kunis were cast. And Marion’s ‘Rust & Bone‘ co-star Matthias Schoenaerts has an offer for a role while ‘Low Life‘ director James Gray helped Guillaume Canet write the screenplay.

The story centers on a younger brother (Crudup) who has to ask his convict older brother (Owen) to go back into the underworld to help out the family. Kunis and Cotillard play love interests. If the finanacing comes together, the movie will head for an April start in New York.

‘‘Rust and Bone‘ aka ‘Un gout de rouille et d’os‘ will be released in France on 24 October 2012. There are strong rumours the film will premiere at Cannes Film Festival, which is no surprise given the reception of Un Prophete, Audiard’s last film.

The Playlist also confirms the already posted news that Alexandre Desplat will be doing the score for the film.

Sources: IMDB and The Playlist

It took a while, but ‘Little White Lies‘ will finally be released in U.S in the First Quarter of 2012. MPI Media Group  (hoping to ride the wave of Jean Dujardin’s performance in ‘The Artist‘) acquired the rights to the film with a VOD/DVD roll-out to follow.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter and MPI Media Group

Warner Bros released last month the trailer for ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ which gives us our first glimpse of Marion in the role. The film will be released on 20 July 2012.

Source: Official Site

Awards season is in full swing and Marion has two potential films in contention this year ‘Midnight in Paris‘ and ‘Contagion‘. ‘Midnight in Paris‘ has a strong chance to pick up some nominations come Oscar time. So far the film has picked up some Critics nominations and is nominated for the following awards.

• Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – Best Picture, Best Comedy Movie (3 nominations)
• Directors’ Guild of America (USA)  – Woody Allen
• Golden Globes – Best Motion Picture – Comedy / Musical (4 nominations)
• Independent Spirit Awards
• Producers’ Guild of America
• Screen Actors Guild – Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
• Writers’ Guild of America

The longlist for this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards were announced last week Marion Cotillard is on it for her supporting performance in ‘Midnight in Paris‘. The film grabbed 13 longlist nominations. Congratulations! The full nominations will will be announced on Tuesday, January 17.

Supporting Actress
Alexandra Roach (Young Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook) – The Help*
Carey Mulligan (Irene) – Drive
Emily Watson (Rosie Narracott) – War Horse
Evan Rachel Wood (Molly Steams) – The Ides of March
Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote) – The Help*
Judi Dench (Dame Sybil Thorndike) – My Week with Marilyn*
Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein) – Midnight in Paris
Kathy Burke (Connie Sachs) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Marion Cotillard (Adriana) – Midnight in Paris
Melissa McCarthy (Megan) – Bridesmaids*
Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson) – The Help*
Olivia Colman (Carol Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King) – The Descendants
Zoe Wanamaker (Paula Strasberg) – My Week with Marilyn*

* Denotes Chapter selection from Round One

‘Little White Lies‘ also made the longlist in the Film Not in the English Language category.

• Source: Bafta.org

While the release of the US ‘Midnight in Paris‘ Blu-ray is still more than a week away the French one has been available since October. Finally, I added some gorgeous Blu-ray screencaptures to the gallery. Enjoy!

500 Midnight in Paris (2011) > Blu-ray Screencaptures

Sony Pictures Classics have revealed that they will release on Blu-ray Woody Allen’s love letter to the French capital Midnight in Paris (2011), starring Owen Wilson (The Darjeeling Limited), Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), and Kurt Fuller (The Pursuit of Happyness). Earlier this year, the film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Midnight in Paris is a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there because of business, and two young people who are engaged to be married in the Fall have experiences there that change their lives. It’s about a young man’s great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better.

Sony’s Blu-ray presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Sony’s official press release notes that the disc will have a 3.0 LCR audio track and the following bonus supplements:

• Midnight in Cannes featurette
• Photo gallery

Midnight in Paris – which was financed by Mediapro, the Spanish company that also funded Woody Allen’s last two films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger – is set to arrive on December 20th. Amazon pre-orders are now available.