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- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday April 20 2005 13.37 BST
The first is the enormous reverence extended to the giggling Danish charlatan-genius Lars von Trier, who was a Palme D'Or winner with Dancer in the Dark, his bizarre capital punishment drama starring Bjork. His competition entry this year is Manderlay, the second in the proposed "Dogville" trilogy about the US.
Von Trier is set to bring his trademark mix of melodrama and facetiousness the the subject of slavery in the south - there are sure to be fireworks about "anti-Americanism". It's already been the subject of a monumental row about a live donkey being slaughtered on camera, and the actor John C Reilly reput edly quit in disgust. But is the film itself a bit of a donkey?
Robert Rodriguez is set to crank up the festival's sexiness factor with his wildly trendy comicbook adaptation Sin City, and screenings of the new Star Wars episode and Woody Allen's London-set comedy Match Point should provide a good celeb turnout for the all-important beachfront photocalls.
The festival loves its art-house masters, and many are here: Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wim Wenders and Michael Haneke. In the absence of France's freakout supremo Gaspar Noe, Haneke, whose film Hidden stars Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, can generally be counted upon to deliver an extreme frisson.
Elsewhere, Kilometre Zero, by Iraqi Hiner Saleem, looks interesting, as does a directorial debut from Tommy Lee Jones and The Child, from Belgian former prizewinners the Dardennes brothers.
Cannes has a record of showcasing trendy martial arts pictures, and this year it presents Election, a Hong Kong-set action thriller with the Asian megastar Tony Leung. This, I predict, will be the audience movie of the festival. An intriguing list - and a lot to look forward to.
Peter Bradshaw is the Guardian's film critic
