Today, Edouard Waintrop, Artistic Director, announced at a press conference at the Forum des Images in Paris, the Directors' Fortnight selection with 19 feature films out of the 1,623 films that were submitted and 11 short films out of the 1,742 submitted.As reported by reliable industry magazine, Variety, the Quinzaine selection includes films by Miguel Gomes and Arnaud Desplechin who "were turned down from the main competition and opted to take their films to the other side of the Croisette rather than accept slots in Un Certain Regard a major coup for Waintrop that signals one the most openly competitive years for the Official Selection and Directors' Fornight in recent memory." Interesting.
Truth is that this year there were too many films by great directors and we can see all sections, including La Semaine, having some of those films that in a different situation (less great films in one year) would have ended in the Official Selection main competition.
My spontaneous impression is that la Quinzaine selection has also a strong French flavor with many films produced with French money (majority or minority). Besides the films already announced and films by Gomes, Miike, Van Dormael, that ALL are absolutely must be seen for me, the most interesting film in the selection is the documentary about Allende by his granddaughter. Outside the great feature films in the selection, noteworthy is the debut short film by nowadays "hot" French actor, Reda Kateb.
Opening Film: L'Ombre des femmes (In the Shadow of Women), Philippe Garrel, France
Closing Film: Dope, Rick Famuyiwa, USA
Allende mi abuelo Allende, Marcia Tambutti, Chile and Mexico (documentary)
A Perfect Day, Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain
As mil e uma noites (Arabian Nights), Miguel Gomes, Portugal
Efterskalv (The Here After), Magnus von Horn, France, Poland and Sweden
El Abrazo de la Serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent), Ciro Guerra, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina
Fatima, Philippe Faucon, France and Canada
Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier, USA
Le Tout Nouveau Testament (The Brand New Testament), Jaco Van Dormael, Luxembourg, France and Belgium
Much Loved, Nabil Ayouch, Morocco and France
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France, Germany and Turkey
Peace to Us in Our Dreams, Sharunas Bartas, Lithuania and France
Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Chloé Zhao, USA
The Cowboys, Thomas Bidegain, France
Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Days), Arnaud Desplechin, France
Special Screening
極道大戦争 Gokudô daisensô (The Great War of the Underworld), Takashi Miike, Japan
Short Films
Blue Tonnerre (Blue Thunder), Jean-Marc E. Roy and Philippe David Gagné, Canada, 21'
Calme ta joie, Emmanuel Laskar, France, 24'
El Pasado Roto (The Broken Past), Martín Morgenfeld and Sebastián Schjaer, Argentina, 17'
Kung Fury, David Sandberg, Sweden, 30'
Pitchoune, Reda Kateb, France 23'
Provas, Exorcismos (Trials, Exorcisms), Susana Nobre, Portugal, 25'
Pueblo, Elena López Riera, Spain, 30'
Quelques Secondes (A Few Seconds), Nora El Hourch, France, 16'
Quintal(Backyard), André Novais Oliveira, Brazil, 18'
Rate Me, Fyzal Boulifa, UK, 15'
The Exquisite Corpus, Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 18'
If you wonder why some sources say the selection has 17 films while others say there are 19, wonder no more (lol) the reason why is Miguel Gomes with his film Arabian Nights as actually is NOT one film but three (3).
As we know the Carrosse d'Or will honor Jia Zhangke in the 2015 edition. To check the list at the official site go here; eventually there will be info available for each film -usually is one week before opening day.
Check info and available trailes @MOC.