To celebrate the festival’s 70^th anniversary, the Cannes Palme d'Or trophy will be encrusted with 167 diamonds.  Legendary Italian actress Monica Bellucci will host the opening and the closing of the festival. Appearing on the festival’s famed red carpet will be top movie stars like Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Diane Kruger, Tilda Swinton, Elle Fanning, Isabelle Huppert, Julianne Moore, and Michelle Williams. Sofia Coppola and Kristen Stewart will show up at the festival this year as directors.

The list of movies screened at the Cannes Film Festival draws attention from both critics and the public. This year’s 18 contenders include films by Michel Hazanavicious, Michael Haneke, and Todd Haynes. Australian actress Nicole Kidman is in four of the festival’s films.“Beguiled”, directed by Sofia Coppola, and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”, directed by Yorgos Lanthimas and starring Nicole Kidman are the two leading contenders for this year’s Palme d’Or trophy. The festival will open with the film “Ismael’s Ghosts” from French director Arnaud Desplechin. The film stars leading members of French cinema - Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsburg, and Marion Cotillard. The festival will also include “Happy End”, a story about refugees from Austrian director Michael Haneke. American directors Baumbach, Coppola, Safdie and Haynes are also in contention. “Okja” from South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, a monster film that cost 50 million USD, will have its world premiere at the festival.

Cannes celebrates movie-making and the cult of celebrity with considerable flair just as summer dawns on the French Riviera. It is little wonder, then, that almost everyone in the world of cinema has at one point or another found the lure of Cannes irresistible.