The film world’s big beasts, including Terrence Malick, Ken Loach and Werner Herzog, have films premiering in May at the Cannes film festival – but Quentin Tarantino’s will be conspicuous by its absence after it was declared “not ready”.

A Hidden Life, Malick’s study of Austrian second world war conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, will be the first time the elusive auteur will have his work at Cannes since he won the Palme d’Or for The Tree of Life in 2011. Loach’s Sorry We Missed You is the story of a delivery driver’s struggle to provide for his family, and takes aim at the gig economy. Herzog will bring his new documentary Family Romance LLC.

Photograph: Reuters

However, Tarantino’s much anticipated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie and is set in 1969 against the backdrop of the Manson murders, will not be showing at the festival, after Cannes’ general delegate Thierry Frémaux said at a press conference in Paris that Tarantino was still editing the film. Frémaux said that Tarantino’s decision to shoot and cut the film on 35mm meant that the postproduction process could not meet the festival’s deadline, and it was likely to premiere in July.

Frémaux also said that another much-trailed American film, the sci-fi thriller Ad Astra starring Pitt directed by Lost City of Z’s James Gray, would not be ready in time – nor would The Truth, the new film from last year’s Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Quick Guide Cannes 2019 Show When and where is it? The festival takes place in the French resort town of Cannes in the late spring, normally in mid-May - this year it's 14-25 May. What are the big films? Twenty-one films have been selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, A Hidden Life by Terrence Malick, and Ken Loach's Sorry We Missed You. There are also a number of special screenings, including Asif Kapadia's Diego Maradona documentary, Elton John biopic Rocketman, and Gael García Bernal's directorial debut Chicuarotes. There are two parallel festivals, the Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week, each with their own line-up. What about all the paparazzi? Cannes isn't just about the art of film. Every night sees a large-scale premiere with a walk up the famous red-carpeted steps outside the giant Lumière cinema. (That's why the festival likes selecting films with big-name Hollywood actors.) Cannes also finds lots of excuses to bring in major stars: for example, 1982's Rambo: First Blood is getting a screening, meaning Sylvester Stallone will pitch up on the Riviera.

Other big names to receive the nod from the festival include the Dardennes brothers, two-time Palme winners, with Ahmed, a study of radicalisation; Pedro Almodóvar who brings Pain and Glory, his loosely autobiographical portrait of a film director in reflective mode; and Amy director Asif Kapadia’s with a documentary about footballer Diego Maradona. These are in addition to the already announced opening film, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die, and a screening for Elton John biopic Rocketman, directed by Dexter Fletcher, that John is due to attend.

Penélope Cruz and Raúl Arévalo in Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria) directed by Pedro Almodóvar

In recent years, the festival has come under mounting criticism for failing to select female directors, and while there has been a small improvement over last year, there are only four films directed by women competing for the Palme d’Or out of the 19 so far announced – the only previous year this figure was reached was in 2011. One of the best known is Céline Sciamma, who made a splash in 2014 with girl-gang drama Girlhood, and will bring the 18th-century-set artist-model lesbian romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The Austrian film-maker Jessica Hausner, director of the much-admired Lourdes in 2009, has also been selected for competition with the sci-fi drama Little Joe.

More female-directed films have been selected in the non-competition slots and the Un Certain Regard section, bringing the total of female film-makers in the official selection to 13. These include the Martin Scorsese-produced Port Authority, directed by Danielle Lessovitz, and the Moroccan drama Adam, directed by Maryam Touzani, about a widow who takes in a woman about to give birth. Frémaux also added that the festival’s selection teams contained a 50/50 ratio of men to women, and that more women have been appointed to positions on the festival administration.

Festival president Pierre Lescure said that the festival’s poster image – of director Agnès Varda, who died in March – was intended as an homage to the “only female director of the new wave”: “She was an icon of the festival, always engaged and committed … she made us happy to the last days of her life.”

Frémaux also addressed Cannes’ continuing dispute with streaming giant Netflix, which pulled its potential titles for the 2018 festival after being told they were ineligible for the festival competition. As predicted, neither the Martin Scorsese gangster film The Irishman, nor Steven Soderbergh’s investigative drama The Laundromat – two of Netflix’s highest-profile films – appeared in the Cannes selection. Frémaux said that Cannes’ stance had not changed. “The rule of the festival, for competition, is that films must be released in theatres … especially when we are encouraged by Spielberg, as well as the theatre owners, we are not yet ready to welcome films that are not released in a theatre.” However, it was also suggested that neither film would be finished in time, thereby avoiding a full-on clash. However, Lescure suggested that in the future the festival may have to be flexible with its rules, in the face of constantly changing distribution patterns.

The Cannes film festival runs 14-25 May.