The Criterion Collection

The lineup of the sixty-fourth annual Cannes Film Festival has been announced, and as usual, directors from the Criterion family are well represented. Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) will be in the running for the coveted Palme d’Or, it turns out (after many months of speculation), with his long-awaited and even longer gestating The Tree of Life. His competition will include Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory Girl) with Le havre, Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) with We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Lars von Trier, returning with Melancholia just two years after his Antichrist scandalized the Croisette. Fans of Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche) also have reason to celebrate, as his new film, Restless, after some delays, will finally see the light of a projector and compete in the Un certain regard category. Perhaps the biggest news about this year’s festival, though, is that the formerly sporadic Palme d’Or for career achievement will from now on be an annual tradition—the 2011 recipient will be Italian legend Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor), who has never been awarded the regular prize.