The 69th International Film Festival, opens Wednesday and will close on Sunday, May 22, with the announcement of this year's winner of the Golden Palm (Palme d'Or).
The festival will open with the latest Woody Allen film - Cafe and Society, starring Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg.
This is the third Woody Allen movie to open the prestigious festival on the French Riviera, after Hollywood Ending which opened the Cannes festival in 2001, and Midnight in Paris, in 2011.
A total of 21 films will run for the Golden Palm award, among which Julieta by Pedro Almodovar, The Last Face by Sean Penn, Paterson by Jim Jarmusch, Loving by Jeff Nichols, and It's Only the End of the World (Juste la fin du Monde) by Jean-Luc Lagarce.
Robert de Niro will feature as a guest at the screening of the boxer drama Hands of Stone by Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz, which is not part of the festival's official competition.
De Niro has starred in two Golden Palm- awarded movies, - Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese in 1976, and The Mission by Rolland Joffe in 1986. He was also a president of the festival jury in 2011.
This year, the jury will be led by Australian director, screenwriter, and producer George Miller, and according to the tradition of universal and international approach and objectivity of the jury, Miller will be joined by 8 film critics from Iran, Denmark, USA, Italy, France, Canada and Hungary.
Along with Miller, the jury is comprised of 4 men and 4 women: actress Kirsten Dunst, singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, director Valeria Golino, and Iranian producer Katayoon Shahabi, while the male part of the jury will consist of actors Donald Sutterland and Mads Mikkelsen, directors Arnaud Desplechin and Lazslo Nemes, who won the Grand Prix last year for his film Son of Saul.
Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, first held in 1939, and officially declared as a competition in 1955.