Coppola, Almodovar films to compete at Cannes

Films by Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater and Pedro Almodovar will compete for the top prize at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, organizers announced Thursday.

Coppola's costume drama Marie-Antoinette, Linklater's documentary Fast Food Nation and Almodovar's Volver, a female-centred, multi-generational comedy, will be among the 19 films vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or at this year's festival, which runs May 17 to 28.

"This is a year of renewal," Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux told reporters gathered at a Paris hotel Thursday. "It's about taking risks." 

Other competitors include Il Caimano, directed by Italian veteran Nanni Moretti, El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), directed by Mexico's Guillermo de Toro, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, directed by U.K. filmmaker Ken Loach.

The highly anticipated film version of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, will screen out of competition and serve as the festival opener.

Other films to screen out of competition include United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, Sydney Pollack's Sketches of Frank Gehry and Shortbus, the latest from John Cameron Mitchell, creator of  Hedwig and the Angry Inch .

Acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai will head this year's nine-member judging panel – the first time the jury has had a Chinese chairperson. He will be joined by actors Zhang Ziyi, Monica Bellucci, Samuel L. Jackson, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth, as well as directors Patrice Leconte, Lucrecia Martel and Elia Suleiman.

Altogether, the festival will screen 55 films, including shorts and feature-length works, from 30 countries worldwide.