CANNES, May 17. /TASS/. The 70th International Cannes Film Festival is set to open on Wednesday in Cote d'Azur, France. Russian movie director Andrey Zvyagintsev is taking part in the main competition of the festival with his motion picture, Loveless. The jury of the jubilee festival selected less than 50 films out of nearly 2,000 submissions.
Russia is being represented in two categories, Loveless in the main one and in the Special View category Kantemir Balagov’s Closeness.
In 2014, Zvyagintsev won Best Screenplay for his film Leviathan, which also competed for the Palm d' Or.
"Zvyagintsev is a genuinely great filmmaker, who came on the scene in recent years and took the movie industry by storm with Leviathan (2014) and I hope that his new film will clearly demonstrate to all in Cannes the real achievements of modern cinema," said Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival.
France is also well represented at the festival with Michel Hazanavicius, who brought us the 2011 Oscar winning film, the Artist, has come out with a new drama, Redoutable, which recreates the story of a French writer and an actress of Russian descent, from the noble Vyazemsky family, with new wave European cinema Jean-Luc Godard. Jacques Doyon's Rodin has made it just in time for the Cannes. The film is set in 19th century Paris and tells the story of the sculptor's encounter with Camille Claudel. Francois Ozon will also be present at the festival in the main competition with his new film, The Double Lover, with Jeremy Rainier and Jacqueline Bisset.
Among other treats for festival-goers is a new film by Sophia Coppola entitled The Beguiled, about a civil war love story with a star-studded cast: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Colin Farrell.
Two-time Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) winner Michael Haneke is rolling out his new film Happy End at the festival as well.
Cannes also recently added Roman Polansky's Based on a True Story to the out of competition screening.