What’s the French for ‘stellar’? That’s one way of describing this year’s line-up at the Cannes Film Festival. The 76th edition of the world’s most famous cinematic gathering has archaeologists, asteroids and Almodóvar and that’s just scratching the surface. In an era when streaming is king and the multiplexes are struggling in the wake of the pandemic, it’s reassuring to see that Cannes can still pull out the movie world’s big guns.

This year’s festival opens on Tuesday May 16 with Jeanne du Barry, a French period drama about the last official mistress of King Louis XV. Directed by Maïwenn, who plays the title role, it co-stars Johnny Depp as the monarch. Nothing like a bit of controversy to start the festival then, given Depp’s career implosion following the notorious high-profile courtroom saga with his ex-wife Amber Heard. “The movie isn’t about Johnny Depp,” shrugged the festival’s artistic director Thierry Fremaux recently, seemingly unconcerned.

No sooner will Depp have shuffled off the red carpet then Harrison Ford will be gracing it for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. This is the 80-year-old Ford’s last hurrah in one of his most famous roles, the intrepid, whip-cracking archaeologist. This time around, it’s set in the 1960s, with the Space Race the backdrop. Of course there are Nazis involved. And British Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is along for the ride, playing Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw. You can expect a few lumps in the throat when that famous John Williams score pipes up.

Space, of sorts, will also be a theme in Wes Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City, which will play in competition – one of 21 films vying for Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or. Set in 1955, around the Junior Stargazer convention, this looks like a companion piece to his earlier scouting tale Moonrise Kingdom, which opened Cannes back in 2012. This has an aptly starry cast – including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johannsson, Margot Robbie and, of course, Scotland’s own Tilda Swinton, who marks her fifth film with Anderson.

Swinton previously worked with Pedro Almodóvar on 2020’s Jean Cocteau-inspired The Human Voice, and the Spanish maestro is back with his second English-language short, Strange Way of Life, which plays out of competition. This western-themed tale, about two gunmen who reunite after twenty-five years, stars Ethan Hawke and man-of-the-hour Pedro Pascal, fresh from his recent TV outings in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. It promises to be a tasty collaboration.

Surely the jewel in Cannes’ crown this year, though, is Killers of the Flower Moon. Directed by Martin Scorsese, who hasn’t been part of Cannes’ official selection since 1984’s After Hours, it stars Leonard DiCaprio and Robert De Niro – two titans of the Scorsese canon. They’ve never appeared together in a Scorsese film and haven’t co-starred since 1993’s This Boy’s Life (directed by West Lothian’s finest, Michael Caton-Jones) when DiCaprio was a mere whipper-snapper. Here, this epic tale – clocking in around three-and-a-half hours – is set in 1920s, during the early days of the FBI.

Meanwhile, the main jury this year is headed by Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who last year walked away with his second Palme d’Or for his social satire Triangle of Sadness. Where his tastes skew is hard to predict, but there are some fascinating films that he and the other jurors will be asked to view. As usual, there is a sprinkling of past Cannes winners, including Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (who returns with Monster) and Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan (back with About Dry Grasses, the story of a teacher accused of abusing a student).

Closer to home, Ken Loach will compete with The Old Oak, set in an impoverished mining community in the northeast. Scripted by Scottish scribe Paul Laverty, who has written almost every Loach film since 1996’s Carla’s Song, this marks their fourteenth feature film collaboration. Given Loach turns 87 in June, this is likely to be his final movie. How fitting would it be to see Loach become the first ever director to win a third Palme d’Or with what might be his swansong?

The other British entrant in competition was something of a surprise – The Zone of Interest. It’s made by Jonathan Glazer, who last released a film with 2013’s cult Glasgow-set sci-fi Under The Skin. Like that, this latest is an adaptation, this time from Martin Amis’ 2014 novel. Set in Auschwitz, it tells the story of a Nazi officer who becomes entranced by the camp commandant’s wife. While most Amis adaptations (London Fields, Dead Babies, The Rachel Papers) have left a lot to be desired, hopes are at fever-pitch for this, which Glazer has filmed in German and Polish.

The competition line-up also includes six female directors, the highest number ever. Among them, Austrian director Jessica Hausner, who makes her second U.K.-set film in a row after Little Joe in 2019. Her new film Club Zero, which she filmed in Oxford, stars Mia Wasikowska as a new teacher at an elite boarding school who chairs a “conscious eating” class, promoting the idea of consuming less. A clique of girls soon takes this idea dangerously to heart – at least if the title of the film is anything to go by.

One to look out for is Four Daughters by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. Her 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and this tale of a mother whose offspring joined Islamic State looks fascinating. Another first-time Cannes competition entrant, the Brazilian-Algerian Karim Aïnouz, will present Firebrand, starring Jude Law as Henry VIII and Alicia Vikander as the monarch’s sixth wife Catherine Parr. Perfect timing, just after the coronation.

British artist/filmmaker Steve McQueen (who presented his debut feature Hunger back in Cannes in 2008) also returns with Occupied City. Playing out of competition, this four-hour documentary comes inspired by the book, Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945) written by his wife Bianca Stigter and promises dual portraits of both the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam and the recent era of the pandemic. What a rich tapestry awaits.  

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 16th to May 27th.