Since 1946 the Cannes Film Festival has been rolling out the red carpet for some of the world’s most innovative moviemakers and anticipated movies. The 2008 event, the lineup of which was announced Wednesday, April 23, won’t be any different. With preview screenings of Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the festival proves it is still the first place moviemakers go to debut their latest releases.

Movies in competition this year include Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie; Atom Egoyan’s Adoration with Scott Speedman; Che, the first of Steven Soderbergh’s two-part Che Guevarra biopics; The Palermo Shooting directed by Wim Wenders and starring Milla Jovovich and Dennis Hopper; as well as Synecdoche, New York, the feature directorial debut from Academy Award winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Shorts in competition come from Julius Avery (Jerrycan), Anthony Lucas (My Rabit Hoppy) and Sam Taylor-Wood (Love You More), among others.

This year’s feature winners will be determined by a jury led by Sean Penn and made up of international moviemakers Sergio Castellitto, Alfonso Cuarón, Natalie Portman, while shorts will see their work judged by Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao Hsien and a jury consisting of French director Olivier Assayas and MoMA curator Larry Kardish.

For more information on the 2008 Cannes Film Festival selections, visit www.festival-cannes.fr/en.

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