Count down in motion. VIFF has revealed more titles to their already beefy lineups (see previous announcements here and here). The most recent set of additions include a little something for everyone from family drama (Charlotte Gainsbourg in The Tree) to strange thrillers (Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber (review)).

Along with the addition of more Cannes selected titles, VIFF has also released their preview guide which lists a over 200 additional titles including some of my most anticipated of the year. Among these are Tsumetai Nettaigyo’s Cold Fish (recently selected as one of TIFF’s most anticipated titles), Sophie Letourneur’s Chicks, Jo Sung-Hee’s apocalyptic road movie End of Animal, Gareth Edwards’ Monsters (review) and Brazil’s Stolen Dreams. This year’s lineup also includes a disproportionate amount of costume dramas (lucky me!) including Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty, Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier, Dover Kosashvili’s Anton Chekhov’s The Duel and perhaps the title I’m most excited to see, Mysteries of Lisbon. So far, an excellent assortment of films to choose from with many more to come!

List of additional Cannes selections tucked under the seats but be sure to check out the preview guide for even more titles!

Aurora Romania/France/Switzerland/Germany, Dir: Cristi Puiu
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Cristi Puiu’s first film since The Death of Mr. Lazarescu stars the director himself as a troubled engineer whose secret plan methodically unfolds as Bucharest day turns into night. A stunningly shot and uncompromising work from a contemporary master.

R U There? Netherlands, Dir: David Verbeek
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When a professional videogame player Jitze (Stijn Koomen) is sidelined by a sore arm and meets Min Min (Ke Huan-Ru), a beautiful, older woman who works as a masseuse (amongst other things), cyber love blossoms. Unfortunately in David Verbeek’s original drama, the couple’s online avatars are far better suited than their corporeal selves…

Biutiful Spain/Mexico, Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu
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“Built around a magnificent performance by Javier Bardem [Best Actor co-winner at Cannes] as a Barcelona low-life coming face to face with his own mortality… Another of Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s grandiose meditations on life and death, parents and children, the supernatural [and] the interconnectedness of the universe… ” – Salon

My Joy (Schastye moe) Russia, Dir: Sergei Loznitsa
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When a truck driver named Georgi breaks down in a rural Russian backwater, he is drawn into the tapestry of village life, where a veritable encyclopedia of vice is being enacted on a daily basis. Wonderfully acidic, Sergei Loznitsa’s portrait of Mother Russia is “a devastating critique of Russian society…” – Variety

The Tree (L’arbre) Australia/France, Dir: Julie Bertucelli
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In the wake of her husband’s sudden death, Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her four kids are left to make sense of life without their father/spouse. But when eight-year-old Simone becomes convinced that her father is living in the Moreton Bay fig tree that towers over their house, the prosaic and the supernatural meet amongst its leafy branches…

Carancho Argentina, Dir: Pablo Trapero
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“Carancho” means vulture, and it is a fair descriptor of Hector Sosa (Ricardo Darin), who makes a living pushing life insurance on accident victims. When Hector falls for a beautiful ER doctor with troubles of her own, the pair set out to beat the system. But – according to director Pablo Trapero – the system, as always, has other plans…

October (Octubre) Peru, Dir: Daniel Vega, Diego Vega

When two sad and solitary souls are joined together via the unexpected appearance of a new born, something of a minor miracle unfolds. While Clemente searches for the baby’s mother (an erstwhile prostitute), his neighbour Sofia gradually discovers her latent maternal instincts. Winner, Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Cannes 2010.

The Light Thief (Svet-ake) Kyrgyzstan/Germany/France/Netherlands, Dir: Aktan Arym Kubat
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Director Aktan Arym Kubat also stars in his warm, gentle comedy about an electrician in the remote Kyrgyz mountains who both helps his neighbours “borrow” electricity and serves as the town psychologist. A “mix of poetry, naiveté and documentary… that works thanks to the director-actor’s profound humanity…” – Hollywood Reporter

Rubber France/USA, Dir: Quentin Dupieux
Official Website

Quentin Dupieux’s film concerns the adventures of an anthropomorphized rubber tire that comes to murderous life in the desert and, via telekinesis, begins to exact bloody retribution on humanity. One of the stranger films to emerge from Cannes this year…

Poetry (Shi) South Korea, Dir: Lee Changdong
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Lee Changdong follows Secret Sunshine with another portrait of a woman who can’t quite cope with her immediate reality. Mija (veteran star Yun Junghee, back from retirement) is bringing up her grandson in a new dormitory town outside Seoul. On impulse, she joins a poetry-writing class and tries to see things through fresh eyes. But then she discovers that her grandson is probably guilty of a serious crime… Winner, Best Screenplay, Cannes 2010.

Hahaha South Korea, Dir: Hong Sangsoo
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You know how it is in Hong Sangsoo movies: two old friends get drinking together and swapping experiences. In this case, what they don’t realize is that they were in the same place around the same time… Starring the sublime Moon Sori as a tour guide. Prix d’Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2010.

Chantrapas Georgia/France, Dir: Otar Iosseliani
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A filmmaker-within-a-filmmaker provides the genial gist of Otar Iosseliani’s cinematic doppelgänger Nicholas, whose fictional life mirrors that of the actual Georgian director. A wry and farcical take on the innate self-regard of artists, as well as a profound meditation on creative freedom, French snobbery and Soviet-era censorship.

Our Life (La nostra vita) Italy/France, Dir: Daniele Luchetti
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Elio Germano shared the Best Actor award at Cannes for his powerful performance as a brash and money-hungry construction worker forced to come to grips with his life and family after his wife dies in childbirth. Veteran Daniele Luchetti (My Brother Is an Only Child) brings a sense of immediacy and vibrancy to this potent drama.

You Are All Captains (Todos vos sodes capitans) Spain/France, Dir: Olivier Laxe
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The “cinema of in between” finds a new star in Oliver Laxe, whose debut fiction-documentary hybrid was crafted with the help of street children in his home base of Tangiers. A mysterious, whimsical and unique creation that won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes.

Dear Prudence (Belle épine) France, Dir: Rebecca Zlotowski
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After the death of her mother, lonely young Prudence (the gifted Léa Seydoux) discovers the underground culture of street-bike racing in the Parisian suburb of Rungis, with unforeseen consequences. “[A] bona fide [Cannes] Critics’ Week discovery from Rebecca Zlotowski… a subtly impressionistic exploration of adolescence on the brink…” – Film Comment

The Princess of Montpensier (La princesse de Montpensier) France/Germany, Dir: Bertrand Tavernier
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“A young noblewoman is torn between passion, duty, companionship and ambition, each quality personified by a different man, in [Bertrand Tavernier's] compelling period drama. Like its heroine [newcomer Mélanie Thierry], Tavernier’s visitation to 16th-century France has both beauty and brains…” – Variety