FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA - COPPOLA TO SCREEN LATEST FILM AT CANNES

COPPOLA TO SCREEN LATEST FILM AT CANNES

The Cannes Film Festival's "sidebar" known as the Directors Fortnight, which has often brought new directorial talent to the fore, will open this year with the latest work of an old hand -- Francis Ford Coppola. After turning down an invitation to show his film Tetro as an out-of-competition Official Selection, saying that a "gala screening wasn't true to the personal and independent nature of this film," Coppola accepted an invitation from the Fortnight, explaining that he wanted his work to be "a cry for independence, which is why it is so appropriate that Tetro is premiered in the Directors' Fortnight, where young filmmakers go." The Fortnight will also include Lynn Shelton's Humpday , a Sundance favorite that already has a distribution deal with Magnolia. Two other Sundance entries also will make their way to Cannes -- Cherien Dobis's Amreeka, which was picked up by National Geographic Entertainment, and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's I Love You Phillip Morris , which has still not found a distributor despite the fact that it stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor . Brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie will screen their Go Get Some Rosemary at the sidebar event as well. The Fortnight will close with the German film Ajami , which deals with the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is directed by Scandar Copti, who is Palestinian and Yaron Shani, who is Israeli.

24/04/2009