Compared to the ultra-sensationalist 2009 festival, 2010 has been a calm year at Cannes. The competitive screenings wind up tomorrow with no clear favorite for the Palme d'Or--and also no rumored discord on Tim Burton's jury. The competition did get a late jolt from two wildly disparate entries. Still, although easily the freshest movie in competition, and possibly the most Burton-friendly as well, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives--a faux primitive Budddhist comedy about death and the transmigration of souls--seems a long shot at best. Another late-screening entry, Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law--an initially shocking but ultimately conventional melodrama about the Algerian revolution as played out in France--would be a purely political choice. Apparently responding to rightwing threats (or the threat of threats), the festival dramatically ramped up security at the movie's press screening; a substantial police presence was augmented by pat-downs and multiple bag searches.

The press favorite is clearly Mike Leigh's middling ensemble piece Another Year. A pair of French movies, Bertrand Tavernier's period piece The Princess of Montpensier and Xavier Beauvois's anti-intolerance docudrama Of Gods and Men, have also been widely praised. Old festival hands expect Juliette Binoche to be named best actress for her role in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy--although her presence on the festival poster might be a problem, in which case the award could go Lesley Manville, the most voluble performer in Another Year. Having suffered through Biutiful, Javier Bardem would seem to have a lock on Best Actor; it's my guess that, with something for everyone, this overwrought multi-culti mystical melodrama, shot in Spain by yet-to-be-laureled Alejandro González Iñárritu, is the likely winner, with consolation prizes for former winners Leigh and Kiarostami and honorable mention to a serious Asian film like Poetry or even Uncle Boonmee--who's lived through this before.