The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. The awards were announced on 24 May, French film The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet, was awarded with the Palme.[3][4]
Opening film | Blindness |
---|---|
Closing film | What Just Happened |
Location | Cannes, France |
Founded | 1946 |
Awards | Palme d'Or: The Class |
Hosted by | Édouard Baer |
No. of films | 22 (En Competition)[2] 20 (Un Certain Regard) 8 (Out of Competition) 17 (Cinéfondation) 7 (Special screening) 9 (Short Film) |
Festival date | 14 May 2008 | – 25 May 2008
Website | festival-cannes |
The festival opened with Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles[5] and closed with What Just Happened, directed by Barry Levinson.[6] Édouard Baer was the master of ceremonies.[7] Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen, opened the Un Certain Regard section.[8]
The British press reported the list of films in competition this year was notable for its absence of British films for the second successive year.[9][10] In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.
The following people were appointed as the Jury for the feature films of the 2008 Official Selection:[11]
The following feature films competed for the Palme d'Or:[2]
English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
---|---|---|---|
24 City | 二十四城记/二十四城記 | Jia Zhangke | China |
Adoration | Atom Egoyan | Canada | |
Blindness | Fernando Meirelles | Brazil, Canada, Japan | |
Changeling | Clint Eastwood | United States | |
Che (Part I: The Argentine and Part II: Guerilla) | Steven Soderbergh | Spain, Germany, France, United States | |
A Christmas Tale | Un conte de Noël | Arnaud Desplechin | France |
The Class | Entre les murs | Laurent Cantet | France |
Delta | Kornél Mundruczó | Hungary | |
Il Divo | Paolo Sorrentino | Italy | |
Frontier of the Dawn | La frontière de l'aube | Philippe Garrel | France |
Gomorrah | Gomorra | Matteo Garrone | Italy |
The Headless Woman | La mujer sin cabeza | Lucrecia Martel | Argentina, Spain, France, Italy |
Lion's Den | Leonera | Pablo Trapero | Argentina, South Korea, Brazil, Spain |
Linha de Passe | Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas | Brazil | |
My Magic | Eric Khoo | Singapore | |
Palermo Shooting | Wim Wenders | Germany, France, Italy | |
Service | Serbis | Brillante Mendoza | Philippines, France |
Lorna's Silence | Le silence de Lorna | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Belgium, Italy, Germany |
Synecdoche, New York | Charlie Kaufman | United States | |
Three Monkeys | Üç Maymun | Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Turkey |
Two Lovers | James Gray | United States | |
Waltz with Bashir | ואלס עם באשיר | Ari Folman | Israel, Germany, France |
The following films were selected for the competition of Un Certain Regard:[2]
English Title | Original Title | Director(s) | Production Country |
---|---|---|---|
Afterschool | Antonio Campos | United States | |
Hunger | Steve McQueen | Ireland, United Kingdom | |
Involuntary | De ofrivilliga | Ruben Östlund | Sweden |
I Want to See | Je veux voir | Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige | France, Lebanon |
Johnny Mad Dog | Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire | France, Belgium, Liberia | |
The Dead Girl's Feast | A Festa da Menina Morta | Matheus Nachtergaele | Brazil |
Los Bastardos | Amat Escalante | Mexico, France, United States | |
Modern Life | La Vie moderne | Raymond Depardon | France |
Ocean Flame | 一半海水,一半火燄 | Fendou Liu | Hong Kong |
O' Horten | Bent Hamer | Norway, France, Germany, Denmark | |
Parking | 停車 | Chung Mong-Hong | Taiwan |
Salt of this Sea | ملح هذا البحر | Annemarie Jacir | Palestine, France, Israel, United States, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland |
Soi Cowboy | ซอยคาวบอย | Thomas Clay | Thailand, United Kingdom |
Tokyo! | Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho | France, Japan, South Korea, Germany | |
Tokyo Sonata | トウキョウソナタ | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Japan |
Tulpan | Тюльпан | Sergey Dvortsevoy | Kazakhstan, Germany |
Tyson | James Toback | United States | |
Versailles | Pierre Schoeller | France | |
Wendy and Lucy | Kelly Reichardt | United States | |
Cloud 9 | Wolke Neun | Andreas Dresen | Germany |
The following films were selected to be screened out of competition:[12][2]
The following films were selected for the Special Screenings:[13][2]
The following short films were selected for the competition of Cinéfondation:[2]
The following short films competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or:[2]
Cannes Classics places the spotlight on documentaries about cinema[14] and restored masterworks from the past.[15]
Tributes
Documentaries about Cinema
Restored prints
The following films were screened for the 47th International Critics' Week (47e Semaine de la Critique):[17]
Feature film competition
Short film competition
Special screenings
The following films were screened for the 2008 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalizateurs):[18]
Feature films
Special screenings
Short films
The following films and people received the 2008 Official selection awards:[19][3]