Canadian co-pro Blindness to open Cannes fest

Blindness, the latest film from celebrated director Fernando Meirelles, will open the Cannes film festival in France next month and compete for the top prize, organizers confirmed on Tuesday.

The film, a co-production between Canada, Brazil and Japan, and two others were added to the competition lineup vying for the Palme d'Or, the festival's prestigious award: Two Lovers by U.S. filmmaker James Gray and Entre les murs (Between the Walls) by French director Laurent Cantet.

When the star-studded Blindness, based on Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's international bestselling novel, was absent from the lengthier Cannes competition lineup announced last week, film industry insiders began speculating that it was being saved for the prestigious opening slot.

"It's both terrifying and thrilling," Don McKellar,the Toronto-based writer of the film, said Tuesday.

"It's not going to be fun; it's going to be really nerve-racking because it's opening night and all the film critics of the world are going to be there, so it's going to be kind of scary. But still, that's the game, and I'm delighted to be there."

Director Meirelles broke onto the international scene with 2002's Rio-set crime drama City of God. He followed in 2005 with his English-language debut The Constant Gardener.

McKellar's screenplay, based on Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's bestselling book Blindness, tracks a bizarre blindness pandemic.The film's internationalcast includesU.S. actors Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover, Mexico'sGael Garcia Bernal, Brazilian actress Alice Braga and a host of Canadians, including Sandra Oh, Susan Coyne,Martha Burnsand Don McKellar, who spent years adapting the script from Saramago's novel.

Partly filmed in Toronto in 2007, Blindnesswas co-produced by Toronto film company Rhombus Media.

Last week, organizers of the southern French film festival announced that new movies by prominent filmmakers including Atom Egoyan, Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderbergh, Wim Wenders and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne would compete for its top prize at this year's edition.

Oscar winner Sean Penn will head a Cannes jury that also includes Natalie Portman and Alfonso Cuaron.

Other films to unspool on the Croisette next month include Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the animated comedy Kung-Fu Panda.

The Cannes International Film Festival takes place May 14-25.