The official selection for the 70th Cannes Film Festival has been announced, offering a first look at the independent films we can expect to dominate Oscar-chatter over the coming year.

Eighteen films make up the main competition, notable inclusions being Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, Yorgos Lanthimos follow-up to The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja.

Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories — which will bring Adam Sandler back to the festival — and Okja mark the first film’s produced by Netflix to be in competition at the festival. Amazon studios also make their debut with Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here and Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck.

Other films to feature include Michael Haneke’s Isabelle Huppert-starring Happy End and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless. Notably, no Hollywood studio films will compete.

Films to get excited about in 2017 Show all 13 1 /13 Films to get excited about in 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Release Date: 15 December 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Director: Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline. Release Date: 27 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 You Were Never Really Here Director: Lynne Ramsay Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Annihilation Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Wonderstruck (image from Far From Heaven) Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Mother (image of Darren Aronofsky) Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (image from The Lobster) Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Blade Runner 2049 Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. Release Date: 6 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Lady Bird (image of director Greta Gerwig) Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance) Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Director: John Cameron Mitchell Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Dark Tower Director: Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. Release Date: 28 July 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Suburbicon Director: George Clooney Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. Release Date: 24 November

Despite showing relatively little television at the festival, two episode’s of David Lynch’s upcoming season of Twin Peaks and two episodes of Jane Campion's Top of the Lake will be screened. The Revenant director Alejandro G. Iñárrituwill also be premiering a Virtual Reality film titled Carne Y Arena.

“The Cannes film festival is a lab,” Festival president Pierre Lescure said at a Press conference, according to Variety. “Even series are using the classical art of cinema and the classical narration. David Lynch and Jane Campion are filmmakers and friends of the Cannes film festival, and we are showing their films.”

In total 49 films from 29 countries will be shown — including 12 by female directors and nine debuts. Arnaud Desplechin — whose last film My Golden Days was screened as part of the 2015 Director’s Fortnight — will open the festival with a screening of new flick Ismael’s Ghosts, which stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marion Cotillard.

The busiest celebrity at this year's festival looks set to be Nicole Kidman, who appears in four titles on the line-up: The Killing of a Sacred Dear, The Beguiled, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, and Top of the Lake.

The full list of competing films is as follows:

Competition

Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes

Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius

Geu-Hu (The Day After), Hong Sangsoo

Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos

A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa

Jupiter's Moon, Kornél Mundruczó

L'amant Double, François Ozon

You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay

Good Time, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie

Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev

The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach

Ismael's Ghosts, Arnaud Desplechin

In the Fade, Fatih Akin

Okja, Bong Joon-Ho

120 Battements Par Minute, Robin Campillo

The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola

Rodin, Jacques Doillon

Happy End, Michael Haneke

Out of Competition

Blade of the Immortal, Takashi Miike

How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell

Visages, Visages, JR and Agnès Varda

Un Certain Regard

Barbara, Mathieu Amalric

La Novia del Desierto (The Desert Bride), Cecilia Atán, Valeria Pivato

Jeune Femme, Léonor Serraille

Lerd (Dregs), Mohammad Rasoulof

En Attendant Les Hirondelles (The Nature Of Time), Karim Moussaui

Anpo Suru Shinryakusha (Before We Vanish), Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Out, Gyorgy Kristof

Posoki (Directions), Stephan Komandarev

Western, Valeska Grisebach

Las Hijas De Abril (April’s Daughter), Michel Franco

Fortunata (Lucky). Sergio Castellitto

L’atelier, Laurent Cantet

Aala Kaf Ifrit (Beauty and the Dogs), Kaouther Ben Hania

Tesnota (Closeness), Kantemir Balagov

After The War, Annarita Zambrano

Wind River, Taylor Sheridan

Special Screenings

Clair's Camera, Hong Sangsoo

12 Jours, Raymond Depardon

They, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki

Napalm, Claude Lanzmann

Demons in Paradise, Jude Ratman

Sea Sorrow, Vanessa Redgrave

Midnight Screenings

The Villainess, Jung Byung-Gil

The Merciless, Byun Sung-Hyun