The China Mail - Farhadi, Almodovar, Zvyagintsev to vie for top Cannes Festival prize

Festival director Thierry Fremaux revealed a list of films in the main competition, including three from Japan and three from Spain, while major Hollywood studios are set to be notable in their absence on the French Riviera.

Other frontrunners for the top prize will include Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won the 2018 competition with "Shoplifters", and former winner Cristian Mungiu from Romania, whose new film "Fjord" is set in Norway and stars Renate Reinsve.

Out of competition, there will be a surprising amount of football at the high temple of French cinema, with documentaries about legendary forward Eric Cantona and the England-Argentina 1986 World Cup match featuring a notorious handball from Diego Maradona.

American A-listers will be thin on the ground at the 79th edition of Cannes, although Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart are set to star in the Paris-set "Full Phil" by French director Quentin Dupieux.

"The United States will be represented. The studios a bit less," Fremaux told a press conference in Paris.

Organisers had already announced that plane-mad US movie legend John Travolta will present his directorial debut "Propeller One-Way Night Coach" out of competition about a young boy's journey in the "golden age of aviation".

Fremaux noted the high number of historical films at Cannes this year, as well as movies that provide some escapism from the grim realities of current affairs.

"We realised that the Western world needs gentleness, songs, nature, and that the countries of the Global South, as people say... need security, need prosperity and need to provide care for children and families," he added.

Hollywood and Broadway legend Barbra Streisand will be awarded the festival's customary Honorary Palme d'Or this year, as will New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, best known for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Filmmaker Park Chan‑wook will be head of the jury that will award the Palme d'Or, the most prestigious prize in the film industry after the Oscar for best film.

The director of "Oldboy" and "No Other Choice" most recently is the first South Korean to hold the position and replaces French acting legend Juliette Binoche who held the role last year.

The 2025 edition gave the top prize to dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and his wry thriller "It Was Just an Accident".

European film festivals have recently found themselves drawn into the conflicts raging in the Middle East and Israel's bombardment of Gaza in particular.

L.Kwan--ThChM