The list is out, and the South of France is bracing itself for the largest-ever invasion of film industry suits and stars between May 7 and 18 in Cannes, for the 50th anniversary of the Festival Du Film.
Anchored at one end by the most expensive French movies ever made, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman, and at the other by Clint Eastwood's White House conspiracy thriller Absolute Power, this year's festival is dominated by American pictures - six in total.
And Southeast Asia can lay claim to a record three entries, including the Hong Kong's first picture to compete for the coveted Palme D'Or. Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together, a love story starring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-fai and shot by award-winning cameraman Chris Doyle in a gruelling Buenos Aires-based shoot last year, will be screened towards the end of the competition.
Chinese 'fifth generation' director Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern ), who, with Keep Cool , has made his first contemporary urban drama, and his first film in memory without former lover Gong Li - who, co-incidentally, is sitting on the jury.
Starring Jiang Wen, Li Baotian and an un-named model-actress, the wraps are tightly on this production, which will be the last film to screen in the competition.
But the first film to be screened in the main competition is also an Asian-directed production; director Ang Lee's much-hyped follow-up to Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm. Financed by 20th Century Fox's arthouse division, Fox Searchlight, The Ice Storm stars Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver in a story about a winter's night in the heart of suburban Connecticut in 1972.