Almodóvar, Daniels, "Woodstock" headed for Cannes

Queer directors, a gay biopic and much more at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which announced its lineup this week.

Read on for more!

Organizers of the 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 13-24 in the south of France, announced their lineup, which includes plenty of interest to gay audiences.

Los Abrazos Rotos

Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar returns to the Croisette with his latest, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces), starring Penélope Cruz and several other members of the gay director's repertory company. The romantic drama has already opened in Spain, but its Cannes debut will mark the film's international launch. (Sony Pictures Classics will release Broken Embraces in the US in November.)

Precious

Another queer filmmaker, Lee Daniels, is headed Cannes-ward with his Sundance hit Precious (formerly titled Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire). With Oscar buzz (particularly for Mo'Nique's devastating supporting performance), a distributor bidding war and the "Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry Present" imprimatur in its favor, look for Precious to make a big splash when it opens Stateside in the fall.

Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee, the director behind Brokeback Mountain, has another gay protagonist in Taking Woodstock, based on the true story of Elliot Tiber (played by Comedy Central's Demetri Martin), the organizer of the legendary Woodstock music festival.

Lee's and Almodóvar's films — along with Spring Fever from Lou Ye, the Chinese filmmaker controversial in his own country for his explorations of sexuality and other taboo topics — will screen in the main competition while Precious is part of the prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar. A complete list of the Cannes Film Festival linup can be found here.