Judi Dench at the 2013 BAFTA Awards

Credit: AP Photo

The Weinstein Company came to Cannes ready to show off with films like "Only God Forgives" (via VOD shingle RADiUS), "The Immigrant" and "Fruitvale Station" in tow, not to mention a big presentation of material including peeks at biopics "Grace of Monaco" and "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom". There were rumblings that footage from Judi Dench starrer "Philomena" at the film market had revved the distributors engines, and indeed, today TWC has announced acquisition of the title in the US, UK and Spain and positioned it in the fall of 2013, obviously aiming for an awards trajectory.

Bruce Dern and Will Forte in "Nebraska."

Credit: Paramount Pictures

CANNES - "Nebraska," Alexander Payne's latest dramedy of American ennui and mislaid family relationships, opens with a vintage monochrome Paramount Pictures ident standing in for the flashier, CGI-enhanced mountain peak of recent years. It's a detail that may strike you either as a cute throwaway (hey, the film's in old-timey black-and-white!) or something rather more calculated. Like so many of his peers, Payne is deeply indebted to the American new wave of the 1970s, and with its Bogdanovich-esque lensing and revival of Bruce Dern, "Nebraska" cops to that debt pretty openly with this badge of cinematic classicism. That's all well and good, but is it stretching to detect a certain smug conservatism there too, a whiff of self-congratulation in its resistance to the new?

Noah Emmerich in FX's critically acclaimed series "The Americans."

Credit: FX

CANNES - This is not Noah Emmerich's first trip to the Croisette. The character actor who has appeared in films such as "Little Children," "Super 8" and who now stars as FBI agent Stan Beeman in FX's hit series "The Americans" journeyed to Cannes for the premiere of Doug Liman's "Fair Game" three years ago.  Now, he's back to support the ensemble of "Blood Ties" where he plays a NYPD police captain caught in the middle of two feuding brothers (Clive Owen, Billy Crudup) in Guillaume Canet's English-language remake of the 2008 French film "Rivals."  It's a nice break for Emmerich whose in the middle of shooting the troubled and controversial Western "Jane's Got A Gun." 

Todd Haynes

Credit: AP Photo

When last we heard from Todd Haynes (save a quick trip to HBO's "Enlightened"), he had brought James M. Cain's "Mildred Pierce" to the small screen via mini-series. Kate Winslet stormed the awards circuit winning every trophy in sight (much like Michael Douglas seems poised to do this year for "Behind the Candelabra") and the event was in general a nice fit in Haynes's oeuvre of female-centric drama. He's set for another as he transitions back to the big screen with "Carol," Screen Daily reports.

"The Big Bang Theory"

Credit: CBS

The Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) announced today its list of nominees for TV programming. CBS series "The Big Bang Theory" and FX's mini-series "American Horror Story: Asylum" led the way with six nominations apiece. On the drama side, FX's "The Americans," AMC's "Breaking Bad," HBO's "Game of Thrones" and CBS's "The Good Wife" led with four nods each.

Robert Redford in J.C. Chandor's "All Is Lost."

Credit: Roadside Attractions

CANNES - Two years ago, at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival,  J.C. Chandor made his feature film debut with "Margin Call."  The drama about a Wall Street investment bank on the verge of collapse featured a prestige-worthy cast and received solid reviews, but got lost as an out of competition premiere in Park City. Eight months later, however, it became one of the first true direct to VOD success stories and earned Chandor his first Oscar nomination in the best original screenplay category.  Now, he returns with a much different film, "All Is Lost," which debuted today at the 66th Cannes Film Festival.

Ryan Gosling in "Only God Forgives"

Credit: RADiUS-TWC

CANNES - If nothing else -- and like many Cannes folk who entered this morning's screening bleary-eyed, and left it black-eyed, I'm still working out just how much else it is -- "Only God Forgives" may be the single reddest film to grace our screens since "Moulin Rouge!." Just about the only scenes in which blood isn't virtually seeping from the walls in Nicolas Winding Refn's sleek, stunted, undeniably startling revenge thriller are those in which it's quite literally splashing them. 

CANNES - Straight from the Palais, HitFix's Gregory Ellwood and Guy Lodge of In Contention break down a few of the most-talked about films from the first half of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, including "A Separation" director Asghar Farhadi's "The Past," the Coen Bros.' "Inside Llewyn Davis" starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake, and the WIlliam Faulkner adaptation "As I Lay Dying" starring and directed by ubiquitous multi-hyphenate James Franco. Check out all their thoughts on these films and more in the video above.

Patricia Clarkson in "The East"

Credit: Fox Searchlight

Zal Batmanglij's "The East" premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in January. Its positioning this summer has me interested in giving it another look amid the surrounding blockbuster noise. The film is about an operative for a private intelligence firm embedded in a corporation-focused anarchist group who sees her priorities tested. It is the follow-up to Batmanglij's debut, "Sound of my Voice."

Justin Timberlake talks about "Inside Llewyn Davis" and juggling a music and movie career.

Credit: AP Photo/Francois Mori

CANNES - It goes without saying that Justin Timberlake's come a long way.  I remember chatting with him and a very young Anton Yelchin at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival about Nick Cassavetes' underrated "Alpha Dog." Timberlake was prepping "FutureSex/LoveSounds" at the time and this was a pre-"Sexy Back" world, but Timberlake's enthusiasm for his Sundance debut was evident. It wasn't clear whether Timberlake enjoyed the art form of acting or whether he saw this as another outlet for his own work, but you could see even then this wasn't going to be a one time thing.