There is a feeling of almost comforting familiarity about Cannes this year.

Although that is not to say the world's most prestigious film festival, now heading for its 67th edition, is playing it safe.

Where else would you see Jean-Luc Godard's latest one night and then How To Train Your Dragon 2 the next? Artistic director Thierry Fremaux has, typically, assembled a sumptuous cinematic banquet, set to open in fine style with Grace Of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly, in a bio of her years married to Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

As so often with the main selection, the old guard have been given prominent berths.

British cinema is again represented by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, both former Palme d'Or winners (with Secrets And Lies and The Wind That Shakes The Barley, respectively).

Leigh's biopic Mr Turner, starring Timothy Spall as 19th-century painter JMW Turner, would seem to be in the same wheelhouse as his masterly Gilbert and Sullivan tale Topsy Turvy (and, at two-and-a-half hours, weighs in as one of the competition's lengthiest).

Loach, meanwhile, delivers Jimmy's Hall, his 11th feature-length collaboration with regular Glaswegian screenwriter Paul Laverty. A study of Jimmy Gralton, a political activist in the 1930s and the only man ever to be deported from Ireland, there will surely be tears on the red carpet if, as has been suggested, this proves to be the last feature film the 77-year-old Loach ever makes.

While the jury, led by Jane Campion, will doubtless avoid any sentimental awards, Loach's record in Cannes is nothing short of remarkable: since 1990, 12 of his films have been selected.

In the Director's Fortnight section, another veteran filmmaker, the 81-year-old John Boorman, returns with Queen And Country, his first feature in eight years. A sequel-of-sorts to his 1987 autobiographical Hope And Glory, it details an Englishman's time fighting in the Korean War.

Thankfully, British cinema has some new blood in Cannes too: in the same strand, former music promo director Daniel Wolfe (best known for Plan B's The Defamation Of Strickland Banks) presents his feature debut Catch Me Daddy, a violent rural thriller with a distinct Scottish flavour, as it stars Gary Lewis and Neds' Conor McCarron.

The final major British entry, playing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, comes from Andrew Hulme, a former editor (he worked on Anton Corbijn's Control) who is making his directorial debut with Snow In Paradise.

A largely unknown cast - including co-writer Martin Askew - is led by Frederick Schmidt, who briefly featured in this year's excellent prison drama Starred Up, and here plays a pretty criminal who discovers Islam after his actions cause the death of his best friend.

Screening in the same section - and another first-time effort - is one of the hottest titles of the festival, actor Ryan Gosling's Lost River.

Previously titled How To Catch A Monster, it stars Matt Smith, the former Doctor Who, Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and Irish actress Saoirse Ronan in a tale of a young lad who finds his way into a secret underwater town. Given Gosling failed to make it to the Croisette last year for the ultra-violent Only God Forgives, expect his presence to increase the decibel level around the red carpet.

Other fan hysteria will doubtless surround the Cannes return of Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, two years on from their respective appearances for Cosmopolis and On The Road.

This time, Pattinson is back with two films. Out of competition, he can be seen in The Rover, an apocalyptic Australian drama by David Michod, who previously made a splash with his familial crime drama Animal Kingdom. This co-stars Guy Pearce in what looks like a major-league homage to Mad Max.

Pattinson can also be seen in his second David Cronenberg outing, Maps To The Stars - one of three Canadian competition entries, alongside Atom Egoyan's The Captive and Xavier Dolan's Mommy.

A Hollywood satire akin to Robert Altman's The Player, it casts Pattinson as a chauffeur - rather odd given he spent most of Cronenberg's Cosmopolis being driven around in the back of a limo - and also features Julianne Moore as a neurotic actress and Mia Wasikowska as her unstable personal assistant. The idea of Cronenberg biting the Hollywood hand is nothing short of glorious.

Curiously, Pattinson's former flame Kristen Stewart is also playing a personal assistant to a movie star in another competition entry, Clouds Of Sils Maria. Directed by Frenchman Olivier Assayas, who was last in Cannes with his five-hour Carlos The Jackal drama, is an intriguing-sounding Alps-set drama about an actress (Juliette Binoche) now asked to play the 'older' role in a play that made her famous 20 years ago. Adding spice, Kick-Ass's Chloe Moretz is the young ingenue taking the role that once made Binoche's character famous.

Of the other big American titles, Foxcatcher is one of the must-sees. Directed by Bennett Miller, who made Capote and Moneyball, it is a shocking true tale of murder involving two Olympic champion wrestlers, Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo). A film with bags of Oscar potential, whether it will win at Cannes remains to be seen.

After all, it will be up against perennial festival favourites Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who arrive with Two Days, One Night, starring Marion Cotillard. Twice-winners of the Palme d'Or, could these Belgium brothers take an unprecedented third? Given the familiar feeling of this years Cannes, the omens seem stacked in their favour.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14-24.

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