The China Mail - Cannes Festival: the films in competition

Here is a list of the titles vying for the Palme d'Or which will be awarded by this year's jury president Juliette Binoche and her seven fellow judges including Oscar-winner Halle Berry and "Succession" star Jeremy Strong.

- 'A Simple Accident' by Jafar Panahi (Iran) -

The repeatedly detained Iranian director, who has been banned from making films, asked organisers "not to say anything about his movie" which is his latest act of defiance. Premieres May 20 at 1400 GMT.

- 'The Phoenician Scheme' by Wes Anderson (United States) -

A typical madcap comedy-drama by the American director about a maverick businessman, with an A-list cast including Benicio Del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, and Mia Threapleton, Kate Winslet's daughter. Premieres May 18 at 1700 GMT.

- 'Young Mothers' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium)-

The Belgian brothers, who have already won the Palme d'Or for best film twice, tell the story of five young mothers staying in a maternity home in their native Belgium. Premieres May 23 at 1400 GMT.

- 'Alpha' by Julia Ducournau (France) -

Four years after winning the Palme d'Or with "Titane", the French director presents a new film starring Iranian-French Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim about a young girl confronted with the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Premieres May 19 at 2030 GMT.

- 'Sentimental Value' by Joachim Trier (Norway) -

A comedy drama featuring a filmmaker trying to reconnect with his daughters from a director whose last feature "The Worst Person in the World" also premiered in competition at Cannes in 2021. Premieres May 21 at 2030 GMT.

- 'Romeria' by Carla Simon (Spain) -

The Spanish director returns to her traumatic childhood with a family journey of a young Catalan girl in Galicia who has lost her parents to AIDS. Premieres May 21 at 1700 GMT.

- 'Sound of Falling' by Mascha Schilinski (Germany) -

A drama that brings together four women from four different generations living on the same farm. Premieres May 14 at 2030 GMT.

- 'Eagles of the Republic' by Tarik Saleh (Sweden/Egypt) -

On the brink of losing everything, Egypt's most adored actor accepts a role he can't refuse under pressure from the country's authorities. Premieres May 19 at 1345 GMT.

- 'The Mastermind' by Kelly Reichardt (United States) -

The story of an art heist set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the nascent women's liberation movement. Premieres May 23 at 1645 GMT.

- 'Dossier 137' by Dominik Moll (France) -

An investigator at France's IGPN agency, which probes police abuses, is charged with looking into an incident in which a police officer injures a young man during a protest. Premieres May 15 at 1630 GMT.

- 'The Secret Agent' by Kleber Mendonca Filho (Brazil) -

A political thriller set in the late 1970s, during the final years of Brazil's military dictatorship. Premieres May 18 at 1300 GMT.

- 'Fuori' by Mario Martone (Italy) -

A biopic about the Italian actor and writer Goliarda Sapienza by the Naples-born veteran director who has been a European arthouse favourite for more than 30 years. Premieres May 20 at 2000 GMT.

- 'Two Prosecutors' by Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine) -

The maker of the 2018 "Donbass" documentary about the war in eastern Ukraine returns with a feature film about an idealistic young prosecutor working in the 1930s USSR during Stalin's purges. Premieres May 14 at 2030 GMT.

- 'Nouvelle Vague' by Richard Linklater (US) -

A drama set in 1960 Paris about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's cinema classic "Breathless". Premieres May 17 at 1300 GMT.

- 'Sirat' by Oliver Laxe (Spain) -

A "road movie of misfits, of people outside society", according to Cannes Festival director Thierry Fremaux. Premieres May 15 at 1930 GMT.

- 'The Last One' by Hafsia Herzi (France) -

The French actor and director adapts Fatima Daas's eponymous novel, telling the story of the youngest member of an Algerian immigrant family who gradually frees herself from her relatives and traditions. Premieres May 16 at 1300 GMT.

- 'The History of Sound' by Oliver Hermanus (South Africa) -

A gay romance about two young men who set out to record the lives, voices and music of their American compatriots, set at the time of World War I. Premieres May 21 at 1300 GMT.

- 'Renoir' by Chie Hayakawa (Japan) -

A coming-of-age drama about resilience, the healing power of imagination and a traumatised family struggling to reconnect. Premieres May 17 at 1300 GMT.

- 'Eddington' by Ari Aster (US) -

Aster, the new master of American horror whose previous credits include "Hereditary" and "Midsommar", has cast Joaquin Phoenix in this story about a small-town mayor in New Mexico during the Covid 19 pandemic. Premieres May 16 at 1645 GMT.

- "Die My Love" by Lynne Ramsay (Britain) -

The director of "We Need To Talk About Kevin" will premiere this thriller about a young mother suffering from depression, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Premieres May 17 at 1600 GMT.

- "Mother and Child" by Saeed Roustaee (Iran) -

Roustaee's last feature in Cannes three years ago, "Leila's Brothers", landed him with a prison sentence but his new film has been hailed in state-controlled Iranian media. Premieres May 22 at 1330 GMT.

- "Resurrection" by Bi Gan (China) -

The director of 2018's "Long Day's Journey Into Night", which was presented in Cannes, returns with a sci-fi detective movie set in a post-apocalyptic world.

Q.Yam--ThChM