The 16th of May will be the start of the 60th Cannes Festival. Cannes has always been my favorite film festival, followed closely by Berlin. Not specially for its "mondain" and people-ish happenings at the Croisette, but more for its innovative choices in competition and juries.

My personal favorites of the past few years were 2001: La stanza del figlio by Nanni Moretti, and Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, 2000: Last year's president Wong Kar Wai's Fa yeung nin wa and in 2004: Oldboy by Park Chan-Wook. Last year's favorite was Volver by regular Pedro Almodovar.

This year's president Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity, The Queen) must be honored to follow up on David Lynch (2002), Quentin Tarantino (2004), Emir Kusturica (2005) and Wong Kar Wai. This years festival will kick off with My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones(!) and Jude Law. Wong Kar Wai's first anglophonic production is a story in the line of In the Mood for Love and 2046, treating themes like separation, solitude and starting over, and can be tipped as a possible winner.

Other noticable guests are The Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Breath, signed by the poetical Kim Ki-duk, and Tarantino's longly-awaited retro-exploitation Grindhouse flick: Death Proof. I'm also expecting a lot from Emir Kusturica's Zavet and the Mexican Carlos Reygadas' Luz silenciosa and I'm eager to see Mogari no Mori.