We promised you we’d give you all the details as soon as they were released. Here they are! We weren’t disappointed by the line-up, and hopefully you’ll be impressed too…

Yep, the details of the 2009 festival are out. Here’s the essential info:

Special preview showings

Nealry thirty of ‘em! Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold (which won the jury prize at Cannes this year), The Girlfriend Experience, the new Steven Soderbergh film, Public Enemies by Michael Mann, starring Johnny Depp, The Reader by Stephen Daldry (for which Kate Winslet won a Best Actress Oscar), Le Ruban blanc by Michael Haneke, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, Taking Woodstock, the new film by Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)…

Re-releases

Pristine new copies of Ugly, Dirt & Bad by Ettore Scola, Divorzio all’italiana by Pietro Germi, Picnic At Hanging Rock by Peter Weir, The Magnificent Seven by John Sturges, Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Milos Forman…

Special guests

Claudia Cardinale, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Charlotte Rampling, footballer Vikash Dhorasso…

photo : lafitte-m

+12 films in competition, a jury prize, a spectator prize, a ‘prize of the future’ (and trophies made by Baccarat!)…

+ 17 short films in competition,

+ CineMômes (kids selection) with special a preview showing of Up (and 7 other films), drawing contests, workshops, kids tea parties…

+ International Guest Country: Turkey with films, short films and meet ‘n’ greets with Turkish filmmakers…

+ Cinema Night: 6 places, 6 themes (saucy, funny, sexy…), for example the Sexy Asian Comedies night at the Nouveau Latina, the Turkish Superheroes Night at the Max Linder, a Russ Meyer Night at the Cinéma du Panthéon (just next to the Hôtel Design de la Sorbonne)…

+ Cine-Concerts with some of Kenji Mizoguchi’s films put to musique,

+ a Cinema Rummage Sale outdoors (and free) in front of the MK2 Bibliothèque cinema on Saturday 11th July,

+ a photo exhibition called Diva Claudia at the Bon Marché department store (two minutes from the Hôtel Ferrandi Saint Germain), a retrospective of Claudia Cardinale’s career in photos,

+ a closing party at new arts space Le Centquatre on 14th July, with the huge Aubervilliers hall transformed into a giant cinema, followed by a concert by Helena Noguerra.

Wow!

A great programme! And it’s a cheap even too: 5€ per film (4€ pour children) or 25€ for a pass. Paris Cinéma has really surprised us this year!

There’s even more information (in French mostly) on the official site: www.pariscinema.org. Have a great festival!