Todd McCarthy‘s annual Cannes forecast piece contains some fresh info but for the most part mentions a lot of the same films previously listed by Screen Daily‘s Mike Goodridge in a 2.11.09 speculation piece. The official slate of Cannes ’09 films will be announced on 4.23.

McCarthy and Goodridge have both listed Pedro Almodovar‘s Broken Embraces , Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglourious Basterds, Lars von Trier‘s Antichrist, Cristian Mungiu ‘s Tales From the Golden Age, Ang Lee‘s Taking Woodstock, Michael Haneke‘s The White Ribbon, Jane Campion ‘s Bright Star, Ken Loach‘s Looking For Eric, Terry Gilliam‘s The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus and Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank.

McCarthy made no mention of Gaspar Noe‘s Enter the Void, Fatih Akin‘s Soul Kitchen or Todd Solondz‘s Forgiveness — you tell me. Nor did he mention Ron Howard’s Angels and Insects, which may, I’m told, have some kind of special screening there to promote the film with European audiences. (Why would Howard want to re-experience the terrible reception that The DaVinci Code received in Cannes in ’06?)

McCarthy has listed Francis Coppola‘s Tetro< ./em> (while forwarding the new information that it was shot in black and white), and Werner Herzog‘s Bad Lieutenant 2: New Orleans Port of Call Sweat and Seafood Gumbo (or whatever it’s called). An “almost certain midnight attraction,” he says, will be Sam Raimi‘s Drag Me to Hell.

He also mentions Jonnie To’s Vengeance (i.e., wolf-faced Johnny Hallyday as a hitman-turned-chef who heads to Hong Kong to avenge his daughter’s death, blah blah) , Marco Bellocchio‘s Vincere with Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Filippo Timi in a study of Mussolini’s secret lover and the couple’s son Albino, and Police, Adjective< ?em>, directed by 12:08: East of Bucharest helmer Corneliu Porumboiu.

Plus a whole bunch of Asian films that I’ll get around to mentioning later on. No hurries or worries.