“Winter Sleep” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey-Germany-France) This three-hour-plus drama is set in the titular landscape of Ceylan’s previous film (and 2011 Cannes Grand Prix winner), “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.” The rigorous Turkish auteur also won the festival’s directing prize for 2008’s “Three Monkeys” and the Grand Prix for 2002’s “Distant.” Meanwhile German-Turkish director Fatih Akin has pulled his new drama The Cut from contention for a spot in this year's Cannes Film Festival, citing "personal reasons. In a statement provided by a spokeswoman, he didn't provide further explanations or details.
Mavi Boncuk |
The announcement of the Cannes competition list is an event that becomes more tinglingly tense and exciting every year. These are the films that will, for good or ill, dominate world cinema conversation in the coming 12 months. They're an alternative canon to the English-language "awards season" movies that emerge after Venice and Toronto in the autumn. With films by big-hitters including Cronenberg, Godard, Hazanavicius, Ceylan and the Dardenne brothers, this is likely to be the case once again.
The festival committee announced the 18 chosen films from a total of 1,800 submissions that will compete this year for one of cinema's most prestigious awards, the Palme d'Or. While Fatih Akın recently announced the withdrawal of his film "The Cut" from this year's festival, Nuri Bilge Ceylan will compete for the fourth time with his latest film.
Ceylan's "Uzak," the final film of his "provincial trilogy which includes "Kasaba" (The Small Town) and "Mayıs Sıkıntısı" (Clouds of May), won the Grand Prix at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. After such enormous success, Ceylan suddenly became quite an internationally recognized name and "Uzak" went on to win a total of 47 awards – 23 of them international – to become the film to win the most awards in the history of Turkish cinema. "İklimler" followed "Uzak," which won the FIPRESCI Award in 2006.
Competing at the 61st Cannes Film Festival with his 2008 film "Üç Maymun," Ceylan won for Best Director and in 2009 he returned to Cannes as a member of the jury. His 2011 feature "Once upon a time in Anatolia" also won a Grand Prix.