Cannes lineup includes films by Tarantino, Wong Kar Wai
U.S. director Quentin Tarantino and Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai are among the directors in competition for the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival in May.
There are 20 films in competition for the Palme d'Or, including Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant, No Country for Old Men by the Coen Brothers, Zodiac by David Fincher and Promise Me This by Sarajevo-born Emir Kusturica.
Wong, who chaired the Cannes jury last year, will open the festival with Blueberry Nights, his first English-language film.
The movie, about a soul-searching trip across America by a young woman, stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman.
Quebecdirector Denys Arcand has announced a draft version of his next film, Age of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres), will be readyfor screening as the closing filmat Cannes.
However, the film, thethird in his trilogy that began withThe Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and The Barbarian Invasions in 2003, is not expected to be completed until the fall.
Tarantino is entering Death Proof, his half of the double bill Grindhouse, which, like Zodiac,has already opened in North America.
Kusturica, who has won at Cannes twice before, is entering Promise Me This, about an old man who prays for his son to find a wife.
Van Sant, who won the Palme d'Or with Elephant in 2003, will bring his Paranoid Park, about a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.
Other directors include France's Christopher Honoré with Les Chansons d'Amour, Iran's Marjane Satrapi with Persepolis, South Korean Lee Chang-Dong with Milyang and Fatih Akin, a German of Turkish heritage.
U.S. documentary director Michael Moore, who won the top prize in 2004 with Fahrenheit 9/11, will be screening his documentary Sicko, about the U.S. health-care system, out of competition.
Another high-profile director, Britain's Michael Winterbottom, is screening his A Mighty Heart, about the murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, also out of competition. The film stars Angelina Jolie.
The stars of Ocean's 13 — Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta Jones, Matt Damon and Al Pacino — are expected to attend the festival.
The film, third in a series of heist movies, is not in contention for the Palme d'Or.
The jury is headed this year by director Stephen Frears and includes Turkish Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.