It’s that time of year again folks; The Cannes Film Festival is one of, if not the most popular and prolific film festival of the year, with many great films being played in contention for big prizes. It’s always an exciting time, so what’s on the list this year?

We have some common names competing this year; Todd Haynes is back with his next film following Carol, a drama called Wonderstruck, starring Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore. Sofia Coppola brings us a Civil War set drama called The Beguiled, with an equally impressive cast in Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst, and Michael Hanake with Happy End (Even though most Haneke films have anything but a happy end), a drama about a family set in Calais with the European refugee crisis as the backdrop. It also stars Isabelle Huppert, so that’s definitely a reason to check it out. Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories is also playing in competition, though the real challenge will be giving Adam Sandler a comeback, and Bong Joon Ho with his latest film Okja.

The Artist director Michel Hazanavicious is back with Redoubtable, Yorgos Lanthimis (The acclaimed director Dogtooth and Academy Award nominated The Lobster) is showing The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and while he may not be as big a name, Kornel Mundruzco is screening his latest film Jupiter’s Moon, following his award for Un Certain Regard at the festival in 2014 for White God.  Those may be the biggest names in competition, but there’s plenty of lesser known talent from all over the globe such as Jacques Doillon (Roding), Andrey Zvyaginstev (Loveless, though he also struck a chord in 2014 with Leviathan), Hang Sang Soo (The Day After) and The Safdi Brothers (Good Time, also sporting a great cast in Jennifer Jason Leigh and Robert Pattinson), amongst many others.

Un Certain Regard, the area of the festival that pays attention to the films with various types of visions and styles, telling stories in nontraditional ways, is a very interesting this year, as it always is. Sons of Anarchy star Taylor Sheridan, fresh off his Academy Award nomination for writing Hell or High Water, is showing his new film Wind River, a murder mystery lead by Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal and Jeremy Renner. Actor Mathieu Almaric brings us biopic Barbara, while popular Japanese writer/director Kurosawa Kiyoshi brings his 45th film, Sanpo suru shinryakusha (Before We Vanish), about three aliens who travel to Earth in preparation for an invasion, taking over human bodies. Former Narnia director Sergio Castellitto brings Fortunata, about a young mother desperate for independence, and Karim Moussaoui delivers only his second directorial feature En Attendant Les Hirondelles (The Nature of Time). While these are the stand outs from the category, there are of course many others competing.

The festival will open Ismael’s Ghosts, a drama about a filmmaker (Mathieu Amalric) who’s about to start shooting a new, only to have his life thrown into a spin when a former love turns up. Special screenings taking place include Kristen Stewart’s Come Swim, the actresses’ short film directorial debut, as well as fellow actress Vanessa Redgrave also making a debut with Sea Sorrow. And whilst this is a film festival, there’s definitely room for TV as Jane Campion and Ariel Kleiman debut the second season to their thrilling series Top of the Lake, with Gwendoline Christie and Nicole Kidman joining Elisabeth Moss in this new mystery. But of course, it doesn’t get much more exciting than a screening of David Lynch’s long awaited continuation of Twin Peaks. The director’s cult TV work has been a favourite for many, and is now finally coming back with the same old cast, and a lot of great new names thrown in.

The full list is below, but these are just some of the highlights from this year’s Cannes line up. As per every ear, it’s bound to be an exciting time.

The Cannes Film Festival will take place from the 17th to the 28th of May.

Opening film

Les Fantômes d’Ismaël (dir: Arnaud Desplechin)

Competition

(BPM) Beats Per Minute (dir: Robin Campillo)
The Beguiled (dir: Sofia Coppola)
The Day After (dir: Hong Sang-soo)
A Gentle Creature (dir: Sergei Loznitsa)
Good Time (dirs: Benny & Josh Safdie)
Happy End (dir: Michael Haneke)
In the Fade (dir: Fatih Akin)
Jupiter’s Moon (dir: Kornél Mundruczó)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos)
Redoubtable (dir: Michel Hazanavicius)
Loveless (dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev)
The Meyerowitz Stories (dir: Noah Baumbach)
Okja (dir: Bong Joon-ho)
Radiance (dir: Naomi Kawase)
Wonderstruck (dir: Todd Haynes)
You Were Never Really Here (dir: Lynne Ramsay)

Un Certain Regard

Barbara (dir: Mathieu Amalric) – opening film
April’s Daughter (dir: Michel Franco)
Beauty and the Dogs (dir: Kaouther Ben Hania)
Before We Vanish (dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Closeness (dir: Kantemir Balagov)
The Desert Bride (dir: Cecilia Atan and Valeria Pivato)
Directions (dir: Stephan Komandarev)
Dregs (dir: Mohammad Rasoulof)
Jeune Femme (dir: Léonor Serraille)
L’Atelier (dir: Laurent Cantet)
Lucky (dir: Sergio Castellitto)
The Nature of Time (dir: Karim Moussaoui)
Out (dir: György Kristóf)
Western (dir: Valeska Grisebach)
Wind River (dir: Taylor Sheridan)

Out of competition

Blade of the Immortal (dir: Takashi Miike)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (dir: John Cameron Mitchell)
Visages, Villages (dirs: Agnès Varda & JR)

Midnight screenings

A Prayer Before Dawn (dir: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)
The Merciless (dir: Byun Sung-hyun)
The Villainess (dir: Jung Byung-gil)

Special screenings

12 Jours (dir: Raymond Depardon)
24 Frames (dir: Abbas Kiarostami)
An Inconvenient Sequel (dir: Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk)
Claire’s Camera (dir: Hong Sang-soo)
Demons in Paradise (dir: Jude Ratman)
Napalm (dir: Claude Lanzmann)
Promised Land (dir: Eugene Jarecki)
Sea Sorrow (dir: Vanessa Redgrave)
They (dir: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh)
Top of the Lake (dir: Jane Campion)
Twin Peaks (dir: David Lynch)

Virtual reality

Carne y Arena (dir: Alejandro G Iñárritu)