Mickle, Takahata and du Welz Headline Director's Fortnight Lineup

Sundance hits Whiplash and Cold In July along with Melbourne winner These Final Hours feature prominently in the lineup for this year's Director's Fortnight sidebar in Cannes, a selection that also includes the latest from Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata Isao and Belgian shocker Fabrice du Welz. Fortnight has built a reputation as the edgiest section of Cannes over the years and this year looks like no exception capped as it is by the 40th anniversary restoration of Tobe Hooper's Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Check out the full selection below.

2014 CANNES DIRECTORS' FORTNIGHT LINEUP

OPENER

"Girlhood" (Celine Sciamma, France). With this drama about a group of teenage girl rebels, Sciamma completes a thematic trilogy of films centered around adolescent sexuality that began with her 2007 debut, "Water Lilies" (which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes), and continued with her 2011 Berlinale entry, "Tomboy." (Sales: Films Distribution)

FEATURE FILMS

"Alleluia" (Fabrice Du Welz, Belgium-France) Lola Duenas and Laurent Lucas play two lethal lovers inspired by American serial-killer couple Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, whose crime spree in the late '40s previously inspired the films "Deep Crimson" and "Lonely Hearts." It's the fourth feature from Belgian genre maven Du Welz after "Calvaire," "Vinyan" and "Colt 45." (Sales: SND)

"Catch Me Daddy" (Daniel Wolfe, U.K.) The British musicvideo/commercials helmer makes his feature debut with this Yorkshire-lensed thriller about a young couple on the run, starring newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed. (Sales: Altitude Film Sales)

"Cold in July" (Jim Mickle, U.S.) Starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson, Mickle's third feature was described by Variety critic Scott Foundas as "a superior piece of Texas pulp fiction ... an ultra-violent, grimly funny hybrid of home-invasion thriller and revenge Western." (Sales: Memento Films)

"Eat Your Bones" (Jean-Charles Hue, France) A teenager must choose between his gangster heritage and his Christian beliefs in this coming-of-age road drama from Hue ("La BM du Seigneur"). (Sales: Capricci Films)

"Fighters" (Thomas Cailley, France) Young thesps Adele Haenel and Kevin Azais star in this first feature from shorts helmer Cailley. (Sales: BAC Films)

"Gett: Le proces de Viviane Amsalem" (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, France-Israel-Germany) Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz), a key character from the sibling filmmakers' first two films, "To Take a Wife" and "7 Days" (which screened in Critics' Week in 2008), fights to obtain a divorce from Israel's rabbinical court in this trilogy-capping drama. (Sales: Films Distribution)

"A Hard Day" (Kim Seong-hun, South Korea) Lee Seon-gyoon plays a man whose dream of becoming a successful cop is derailed when he causes a fatal hit-and-run in this crime thriller.

"National Gallery" (Frederick Wiseman, France-U.S.) Barely a year after his Venice-preemed opus "At Berkeley," the prolific documentarian turns his gaze on employees and visitors at the London art museum. Wiseman was previously in Directors' Fortnight with 2010′s "Boxing Gym."

"Next to Her" (Asaf Korman, Israel) Winner of the work-in-progress competition at the recent Thessaloniki Film Festival, this feature directing debut from Israeli editor Korman ("God's Neighbors," "The Slut") follows a 27-year-old woman trying to take care of her younger, mentally challenged sister.

"Queen and Country" (John Boorman, Ireland-U.K.) The British helmer dramatizes his military service in the early '50s in this long-gestating drama starring David Thewlis, Richard E. Grant and Caleb Landry Jones -- a sequel of sorts to Boorman's semi-autobiographical 1987 film, "Hope and Glory." Boorman has won the director prize at Cannes twice, for 1970′s "Leo the Last" and 1998′s "The General." (Sales: Le Pacte)

"Refugiado" (Diego Lerman, Argentina-France-Germany) Argentine helmer Lerman follows his 2010 Directors' Fortnight selection, "The Invisible Eye," with this film about a 4-year-old boy who arrives at a women's shelter with his mother and a small plastic dinosaur.

"The Tale of Princess Kaguya" (Isao Takahata, Japan). Studio Ghibli's animated retelling of a 10th-century Japanese myth, from septuagenarian master Isao Takahata ("Grave of the Fireflies"), has been a major local hit with more than $20 million grossed to date. Variety critic Maggie Lee called the film "a visionary tour de force" that "embraces fantasy and abstract symbolism to wondrous effect."

"These Final Hours" (Zak Hilditch, Australia) Nathan Phillips ("Wolf Creek") plays a man racing against time to escape a fiery apocalypse in Hilditch's debut feature, which won a critics' prize for top Australian film at last year's Melbourne Film Festival. (Sales: Celluloid Nightmares)

"Tu dors Nicole" (Stephane Lafleur, Canada) A 22-year-old woman's quiet summer at home takes an unexpected turn when her older brother shows up with his music group in Quebecois helmer Lafleur's third feature, after 2007′s "Continental, un film sans fusil" and 2011′s "Familiar Grounds."

"Whiplash" (Damien Chazelle, U.S.) Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons play a talented young drummer and his ferocious instructor, respectively, in Chazelle's highly lauded sophomore feature, which Variety critic Peter Debruge hailed as "a stellar career-starter" that "demolishes the cliches of the musical-prodigy genre." (Sales: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

"Li'l Quinquin" (Bruno Dumont, France) A detective yarn set in the French village of Boulogne, this four-part, 200-minute Arte miniseries reps a first foray into television for the Gallic provocateur, as well as a return to Directors' Fortnight, which presented his 1997 debut, "Life of Jesus." Dumont has twice won the Grand Prix at Cannes, for 1999′s "Humanite" and 2006′s "Flanders"; his 2011 film, "Outside Satan," premiered in Un Certain Regard.

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (Tobe Hooper, U.S.) Recently unveiled at the SXSW Film Festival, this 90-minute restored version of Hooper's seminal 1974 horror-thriller will roll out theatrically in the U.S. this summer via MPI/Dark Sky Films in honor of the film's 40th anniversary.

CLOSER

"Pride" (Matthew Warchus, U.K.) Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West star in this period dramedy about a group of LGBT activists raising money to support striking mineworkers during the Margaret Thatcher era. It's the first bigscreen feature since 1999′s "Simpatico" for Warchus, a theater director ("Matilda," "The Norman Conquests") who won a Tony for helming 2009′s "God of Carnage." (Sales: Pathe)