Last year, Cannes did not cover itself in glory. Yes, there were some wonderful films (Zama, Happy as Lazzaro), but there was also a pronounced lack of buzz and awards glory – due largely to the Netflix spat meaning the likes of Roma went elsewhere.

This impasse is still present, so no Netflix films this year either. Already announced are Rocketman, the Elton John biopic, and opening-night zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. Here are 20 key titles we expect to feature in Thursday’s official programme announcement.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

About as dead cert as it gets, provided Tarantino finishes it in time. QT has amassed a big name cast – DiCaprio, Pitt, Margot Robbie – for a 60s-set thriller set against the backdrop of the Manson murders, focusing on an actor and stuntman trying to reinvigorate their careers.

Pain and Glory

The new one from Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar is billed as the director’s answer to Fellini’s self-referential masterwork 8½. Longterm collaborator Antonio Banderas plays a sixtysomething film-maker looking back over his life; another longterm collaborator, Penelope Cruz, puts in an appearance as his mum, Jacinta. It’s already been released in Spain, but that’s not likely to deter Cannes’ perennial auteur worship.

The Truth

It looks like a swift return to Cannes for the winner of last year’s Palme d’Or, Hirokazu Kore-eda, with the path made even smoother with a French-language film starring Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche. They play a movie-star mother and scriptwriter daughter whose relationship disintegrates after the latter publishes a no-holds-barred memoir.

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.

Against All Enemies

Since Clouds of Sils Maria, Kristen Stewart has been a Cannes fixture, so her biopic of Jean Seberg – herself a French cinema icon since A Bout de Souffle – is primed for a slot. Directed by Benedict Andrews, this focuses on Seberg’s harassment by the FBI.

Ad Astra

Director James Gray has been a long-term favoured son of Cannes, and will be even more so since Lost City of Z made him a Hollywood player of sorts. This mid-budget sci-fi stars Brad Pitt as a soldier on a space mission to find his lost father, a renegade scientist. It’s due for general release during the festival, so could well feature in the first few days.

A Hidden Life

Terrence Malick still maintains a near-impenetrable veil over the status of his films, so there’s no way of knowing if the (as ever) long-gestating project will be done in time . A drama about the Austrian anti-Nazi conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter who was executed in 1943, the festival will bend over backwards if there’s a chance of it getting in.

Sorry We Missed You

Rumours of Ken Loach’s retirement have clearly been exaggerated. The two-time Palme winner could be back in Cannes with his latest, a gig-economy drama about a delivery driver (played by Kris Hitchen) trying to keep head above water. Loach’s regular partner Paul Laverty scripts.

Ahmed

Reviews of the Dardenne brothers’ last film, The Unknown Girl, were uncharacteristically middling, but as Cannes fixtures they are sure to be up for consideration. Their subject here is radicalisation: a Belgian teen plans to kill his teacher after succumbing to religious extremism.

Matthias and Maxime

Francophone Canadian director Xavier Dolan returns to his Montreal roots with what is described as an “homage to the family dramas of the 90s”, with Dolan featuring on screen alongside his Mommy star Anne Dorval.

Parasite

Bong Joon-ho’s last film, Okja, was one of the triggers for Cannes’ Netflix row, but since the streaming giant is not involved with this one, there should be no barrier to the festival selecting it. Parasite is a creepy-looking thriller about a hard-up family who infiltrates another, richer one; Song Kang-ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) stars.

True History of the Kelly Gang

Justin Kurzel’s last film, Assassin’s Creed, was a blip in a thus far faultless career. His next, an adaptation of the Peter Carey novel, looks like a wise return to the Aussie true-crime scene he so brilliantly mined in debut Snowtown. George MacKay is Ned; Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult and The Babadook’s Essie Davies support.

Nighthawk

Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s new one stars Jonny Mars and Sonia Braga and tells of a documentarian travelling to the heart of Brazil. But the locals aren’t quite what they seem and may harbour dangerous secrets. Given that Udo Kier is also in the cast, horrific acts likely await.

First Cow

Kelly Reichardt’s latest is the story of a cook for a gang of fur trappers in 1820s Oregon – niche for most; standard issue for the Meek’s Cutoff and Old Joy director. This one also involves a trip to China and back again, as our heroes team up with a refugee. No big stars are attached, but this still looks like essential and singular film-making.

Frankie

Discreet and humane domestic dramatist Ira Sachs’s latest film is a family vacation saga set in Sintra, Portugal and starring Isabelle Huppert, alongside Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear and Jérémie Renier. Sachs is overdue a breakthrough; his first film shot outside the US might just be the one to do it.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Tomboy and Girlhood director Céline Sciamma looks all but certain to return to the Croisette with this intense, 18th-century romance between a painter and the woman she is commissioned to paint for a wedding portrait, starring longtime muse Adele Haenel. The inferno isn’t just metaphorical; IMDb’s scant cast list includes “Woman near fire”.

Little Joe

Dormant for five years, Jessica Hausner returns with a promisingly topical – and faintly Lanthimos-ish – sci-fi featuring Ben Whishaw, Emily Beecham, Lindsay Duncan and Kerry Fox. “A genetically engineered plant scatters its seeds and seems to cause uncanny changes on living creatures,” runs the blurb. “The afflicted appear strange, as if they were replaced – especially for those who are close to them.” Ooh-er.

Proxima

Matt Dillon returns to space for this work/life balance drama about a female astronaut (Eva Green) who learns her one-year mission is approaching faster than anticipated, in the latest from young Cannes darling Alice Winocour.

Annette

Leos Carax’s first film since Kylie-featuring work of genius Holy Motors stars Adam Driver as a standup and Michelle Williams as his – dead – opera-singer wife. Their two-year-old has “surprising gifts” apparently, which we’re interpreting as quasi-supernatural powers, rather than a random selection from Poundsaver.

Midsommar

Clammy-handed anticipation surrounds the second feature from Hereditary director Ari Aster. This one has Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor heading off to join Will Poulter at a special Scandinavian Wicker Man-style festival that looks like a less relaxing holiday than anticipated.

Wendy

Remember Benh Zeitlin? All the way back in 2012, Beasts of the Southern Wild catapulted him to the top of the film-makers to watch list, only for him to deliver … nothing. Belatedly, he’s back, with the Montserrat-set story of a young girl who is kidnapped and taken to a destructive ecosystem where mystical pollen breaks the relationship between ageing and time.



