The red carpet has been unrolled; the subtle cleavage shots of beautiful, obscure European movie stars abound; and the Quentin Tarrantino fan club is out in force. That's right, the Cannes Film Festival is upon as again.

Over the next 11 days, the festival, which turns 60 this year, will be showcasing a blend of arthouse movie gems alongside the Hollywood big guns.  Literally hundreds of productions will be screened, criticised and publicised, luring the likes of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney to France's southern coast for the mother of all film festivals.

The festival opened on Wednesday with the well received world premiere of My Blueberry Nights, directed by Wong Kar Wei and starring singer-turned-actress Norah Jones. This year, selectors chose no less than five US productions in the main competition, although two have already been released in their home country to a cool reception. Quentin Tarantino, adored by the Cannes faithful for his subversive style, presents Death Proof, part of a double bill that flopped at the box office. And David Fincher was included for Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr in a drama based on a real-life serial killer.

Like Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and Gus Van Sant are US directors who have won the coveted Palme d'Or before and are in contention to repeat that success. They are likely to face stiff competition from two highly regarded Russian film makers – Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Banishment) and Alexander Sokurov, whose Alexandra is set in Chechnya.

Portraits of life in Iran, Romania, Ukraine, Austria, Mexico, Turkey and Israel also feature in what critics expect to be a vintage lineup.

As ever, out-of-competition films threaten to steal the limelight, with Hollywood sequel Ocean's 13, starring Clooney and Pitt, premiering in Cannes, and Jolie promoting A Mighty Heart based on the story of slain reporter Daniel Pearl. But there are no genuine blockbusters launching at the festival this year, unlike 2005's Star Wars sequel and 2006's The Da Vinci Code, which went on to gross $US758 million ($910.78 million) at the worldwide box office despite a critical mauling in Cannes.
There are also fewer political films, although Michael Moore's documentary SiCKO about the US healthcare system is likely to cause a stir, just as his anti-Bush polemic Fahrenheit 9/11 did when it won the 2004 Palme d'Or.

DiCaprio is also in town with 11th Hour, an environmental documentary that is the latest product of Hollywood's growing concern over global warming.

Although no British films appear in the main competition this year, some of its biggest music acts are set to light up the silver screen. Control looks at the life and premature death of Joy Division star Ian Curtis, while The Future is Unwritten examines the Clash's Joe Strummer.

It’s time for all the Margaret and David wannabes to crawl out of the woodwork to wax lyrical about the emerging stars of the art house screen.