If the early morning buzz is any indication, Nicole Kidman will be a major player this winter in he Oscar race. Her Lee Daniels directed film, “The Paperboy,” was shown to the press this morning. The reaction was unanimous raves for Kidman, who already has an Oscar for her role as Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.” She most recently was nominated for “Rabbit Hole.”

Kidman and her cast, including Matthew McConnaughey, will be walking the red carpet at the Palais tonight to much fanfare. Lee Daniels, who directed the indie hit and six time Oscar nominee “Precious,” should be beaming. That’s because all day distributors are fighting for the chance to buy “The Paperboy.” Everyone should be this popular! Kidman and crew will steal the heat from everything else tonight.

When did Brad Pitt become such a good actor? He nailed it in “Moneyball” and got an Oscar nomination. As Cogan, a literate hit man in Andrew Dominick’s “Killing Them Softly,” he’s magic, a real old fashioned leading man who’s integrated character actor choices into his repetoire.

Cogan doesn’t even come into the movie right away; he’s preceded by Scoot McNairy, in a Best Supporting Actor worthy performance and several other really terrific turns by Ray Liotta, Vince Curatola, and Ben Mendelson. They are each gifted with remarkable, quotable dialogue that will be memorable.

This is The Weinstein Company’s third entry here in Cannes so far, making them three for three with “Lawless” and “The Sapphires.” Not to mention their screening last night of footage from three more films that look great: “The Master,” “The Silver Linings Playbook,” and “Django Unchained.” This should be some wild fall season from Harvey Weinstein, who’s back in form with a vengeance.

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Set against the 2008 election and the rapidly growing recession, “Killing Them Softly”– while violent–is a thinking man’s crime story. Cogan delivers the final line, destined to be as much of a classic as the film: “America isn’t a country, it’s a business.”

And business it is, as the hold up of a gangsters’ card game goes wrong, angers the wrong modern outlaws, and triggers a series of “hits” that come to involve Pitt and a very amusing James Gandolfini (as a hit man who’s more interested in his own hedonism than completing his job) and Richard Jenkins as a new kind of corporate stooge.

Gandolfini once joked that every time he was in a movie with Brad Pitt it was a failure and he was Pitt’s bad luck charm. No more.

You want weird? Aniello Arena, the star of Matteo Garrone’s brilliant new film, “Reality,” is in prison for life for murder. In Italy. He was cast by Garrone from his prison theatre troupe.

Watching the movie, a sort of Truman Show look at the effect of reality TV on a Naples village family, you’d   never guess that the charismatic fellow playing Luciano is in real life a murderer serving a 20 year to life term. He was able to make the under some kind of Italian work release program. He’s described in Italian newspaper reports a “lifer” in his prison. And a brilliant actor.

Arena  could easily wind up winning Best Actor here. He won’t be able to attend the ceremony if so. Whoever gets “Reality” for American distribution gets quite a story. Details are sketchy but more to come⿦

Armani is sponsoring this unique never before event.  Giorgio Armani’s niece Roberta starts by reading a statemen of support for Sean Penn’s work in Haiti.  Penn, Petra Nemcova, and Paul Haggis are on the dais. Their three organizations for Haiti are holding a joint all star fundraiser tonight in Cannes, endorsed by the festival.
Sean: “Central problem in Haiti is poverty. Paul Haggis’s group was there before the earthquake, in 2008.”
Haggis: “Before the quake no one gave a damn about Haiti. I stayed there because of the people.” Haggis couldn’t get into Haiti. Penn organized planes and doctors. “Sean is a hero of mine.”
Petra: “We were there in 2007. We came to build schools. After the first anniversary of a disaster, people forget. We come in one year later. It  will take ten years to rebuild Haiti.”
Sean: “The organizations have solidarity. This is an expression and shared voice⿦it’s basic love between people.  Mathematically Haiti has never had a chance. It’s not defined by the earthquake.
Sean:  “It is time for our formidable and elegant president stand by side with the new president of Haiti.”
Haggis: “We’re three white people. What we do is work with grass roots organizations on the ground.”
Petra: “We don’t want to focus on the past.”
Haggis: “Lots of other people working hard on this, like Donna Karan.  There is so much hope in Haiti.”

Controversial French filmmaker, Oscar winner Roman Polanski, may be the real lightning rod at Cannes this year. Today a filmed interview with him called “Roman Polanski: A Memoir,” was shown to a packed house. Polanski’s old friend Andrew Braaunsberg conducted the interview with the director at his Swiss estate during his house arrest in 2010.   This is not Marina Zenovich’s “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” which revealed a lot about Polanski’s  original legal situaton. The new film barely addresses much of that.

The new film is more of a conversation between Polanski and Braunsberg and Polanski about the director’s horrifying experiences a a child in the Holocaust, and the way he recreated them for “The Pianist.” In that respect it’s a fascinating interview. Braunsberg and director Laurent Bozeau make Polasnki, who is rarely seen by his fans or detractors, a very human side. He’s certainly no monster but a complicated man wih a painful past.

Press shy, Polanski comes to Cannes on Monday for a tribute and a screening of one of his great films, “Tess.” He may also attend a small filmmakers dinner. But his presence here will be felt, without a doubt. And when a deal is made for the interview film to be shown in America, it will cause  a sensation.