Cannes 2016 kicks off!

The lineup for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival was announced, and it promises an exciting mix of talent from around the world. Some big stars on the lineup include Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, and Parker Posey, who are all in the out-of-competition Woody Allen film, "Café Society". More intriguingly, Stewart returns to the competition with her "Clouds of Sils Maria" director, Olivier Assayas, for "Personal Shopper", which is rumored to be a ghost story. There's more excitement about a quartet of films from trusted Cannes directors, which have some star power in their casts, but mostly come recommended by their directors. Quebec-born, France-embraced young filmmaker Xavier Dolan will walk the Croisette for the sixth time with his film "It's Only the End of the World", a drama about a writer who travels home to tell his family that he's dying. Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, and Nathalie Baye round out the cast of French film royalty. Then there's Pedro Almodóvar's "Julieta", the lauded Spanish director's first film since 2013. This latest film, about a mentally troubled woman reflecting on her past, seems more in keeping with Almodóvar's best seriocomic work. There's the previously mentioned "Personal Shopper", high on my list, as Assayas's "Clouds of Sils Maria" was my favorite film to come out of Cannes two years ago. And then there's Denmark's Nicolas Winding Refn's "The Neon Demon", returning the stylish director to Cannes. 

This is Cannes! Chock-full of top talents, which is the kind of Cannes you want. The only problem with the lineup this year, and it's a major one, is the considerable lack of female directors on the list and let's hope for improvement on that next year and beyond.

The 69th Festival de Cannes will be presided by the Australian director, screenwriter and producer, George Miller. 

The Honorary Palme d'Or of the Festival's 69th edition will be awarded to the French comedian Jean-Pierre Léaud during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday May 22nd.