oll out the red carpets, call up the paparazzi, and grab a baguette because the 61st Cannes Film Festival is on the way. From the 14-25 of May the beaches of Cannes will be overrun by celebrities and flashbulbs. This is by far the most famous and respected film festival in the world, with classic movies screening to the public for first time every year. Movies like Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction, M*A*S*H and Shrek 2 (ugh!) all made their first appearance on these fabled screens. For a movie fan it’s sheer nirvana, for filmmakers it’s a stressful few weeks that can make or break a career. Regardless of which category you fall into, the Cannes Film Festival is always guaranteed to be one of the most important cinematic events of the year.

The 2008th edition of Cannes features a jury that will be headed up by none other than Sean Penn and feature Sergio Castellitto, Natalie Portman, Alfonso Cuaron, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Rachid Bouchareb casting votes along with him. This week the Cannes Film Festival line up was announced. 19 films will be appearing in competition, 14 will be given special screenings and a further 19 will appear in Un Certain Regard (a special program dedicated to new and first-time filmmakers). Here are a few highlights of the titles that were announced.

Films Screening In Competition

Adoration: Adam Egoyan—the festival’s favourite Canadian—will return to Cannes with Adoration. After struggling with a big budget Hollywood production (Where The Truth Lies), the director goes back to his roots with this low-budget drama set in Toronto. Egoyan has been rather tight-lipped about the specifics of this movie, but it was apparently inspired by the true story of a man who talked his pregnant girlfriend onto an El Al flight before a bomb was found in her handbag. But, that’s not the plot of the movie, which is about a teenager who uses the internet to construct a false identity. How these two threads will connect is unclear, but there are certainly a number of intriguing elements in play. It could very well be another artistic triumph for the director.