Daily Times

The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be a who’s who of Hollywood A-listers and veteran filmmakers this May, and feature a record six women filmmakers in competition, the organizers announced on Thursday.

Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” will alone bring a cavalcade of stars to the red carpet, including Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, and Scarlett Johansson. It is competing among 19 films for the top prize Palme d’Or when the festival returns to the Cote d’Azur from May 16-27. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore will be present for a romance by director Todd Haynes, “May/December”, while veteran filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Wim Wenders are also competing.

The festival had already bagged some glitzy Hollywood premieres, including the new Indiana Jones and Martin Scorsese movies, as well as the comeback film from Johnny Depp. Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, currently has an out-of-competition slot, but may end up in the contest, festival director Thierry Fremaux said, without giving a clear explanation. Also playing out of competition is a documentary about wartime Amsterdam, “Occupied City”, by celebrated British director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), which Fremaux described as “a very radical film of several hours”. Victory in Cannes can give a major boost to arthouse cinema such as last year’s winner “Triangle of Sadness”, which went on to pick up several Oscar nominations. Its director, Sweden’s Ruben Ostlund, heads this year’s jury.