Cannes predictions: Auteurs aplenty (SCR, THR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

With the Berlin Film Festival winding down, it's time to start looking towards Cannes. The prognosticators of what will stroll down the Croisette and up the red carpet in May have weighed in with their thoughts and while nothing will be certain until the late-April Cannes press conference, it's looking like an all-you-can-eat auteur buffet.

The Hollywood Reporter and ScreenDaily.com have come up with a list of possibilities that includes films from confirmed Cannes favorites and winners including Pedro Almodovar ("Broken Embraces"), Lars Von Trier ("Antichrist"), Jane Campion ("Bright Star") Ken Loach ("Looking for Eric"), Jim Jarmusch, ("The Limits of Control"), Michael Haneke ("The White Ribbon"), the Coen Brothers ("A Serious Man") and Bruno Dumont ("Hadewijch").

Palme d'Or winners Michael Moore and Steven Soderbergh both also have new films; Moore's is an untitled documentary while Soderbergh actually has two pictures in "The Girlfriend Experience" and "The Informant."

From France, Jacques Audiard's hotly-anticipated "Un Prophete" has tongues wagging while "Belleville Rendezvous" director Sylvain Chomet could end up in competition with his animated "L'Illusioniste."

Also from France, dueling Coco Chanel biopics will be ready for Cannes: Jan Kounen's "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" and "Coco Before Chanel" starring Audrey Tautou. The former appears to be the more likely candidate.

Sure things look to be Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" - for which the director has been eyeing Cannes from the get-go � and, if he's finished with the effects, Gaspar Noe whose "Enter the Void" would mark a return for the director since he stunned audiences with the graphic "Irreversible" in 2002.

Meanwhile, after last year's "Indiana Jones" extravaganza, studio tentpole offerings are slightly harder to call. Ron Howard's "Angels and Demons" could follow its predecessor "The Da Vinci Code" to the Croisette. (However, one wonders if - despite "Da Vinci's" eventual huge box office haul - the filmmakers would want to expose themselves to the possibility of a similar critical thrashing as the last time around.) McG's "Terminator Salvation" is another candidate while Pixar's "Up" is also a possibility.

Other notable possibilities are Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" which features Heath Ledger's final performance, Andrea Arnold's second feature "Fish Tank," Todd Solonz' "Forgiveness," the portmanteau "New York, I Love You" and "Farewell" from Frenchman Christian Carion starring Guillaume Canet, David Soul and Emir Kusturica.

THR says potential opening night films (which generally run out-of-competition) include Jaco van Dormael's sci-fi fantasy "Mr. Nobody" starring Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley and Rhys Ifans and the documentary about global consumption and its effects on the planet "The Titanic Syndrome," directed by France's Nicolas Hulot.

Finally, Screen says Ang Lee, who hasn't played in competition since 1996, could find a berth with his comic period piece "Taking Woodstock" which opens in the US on Aug 1.