Jeff Kravitz / Film MagicYou might say the 2012 Cannes Film Festival is finally embracing the Twilight generation.
Wes Anderson's quirky romance Moonrise Kingdom will kick off the 65th annual fest, and joining it in the competition slate will be films featuring Twilight Saga stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson!
A who's who of stars is expected to grace the Croisette this year, including Matthew McConaughey (who has not one, but two movies at the festival), Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Reese Witherspoon, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hardy and John Cusack.
Cannes, which runs May 16-27, will feature four North American filmmakers competing for the Palme d'Or—the first time that's happened since 2008.
They include: David Cronenberg, whose version of Don DeLillo's novel Cosmopolis stars R.Pattz as a Wall Street money manager who embarks on a surreal odyssey across Manhattan; Take Shelter director Jeff Nichols, whose Mud is a coming-of-age Huck Finn-like tale headlining McConaughey and Witherspoon; Precious director Lee Daniels, whose film The Paperboy features Efron playing a reporter who returns to his Florida hometown to probe a case involving a death row inmate; and Anderson, of course, whose Moonrise Kingdom stars the likes of Murray, Swinton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman and Harvey Keitel and chronicles a pair of lovers who flee their New England town, prompting locals to organize a search party to find them.
One of the most highly anticipated flicks hitting the French Riviera will be Walter Salles' big-screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund star as Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, respectively, as they set off on a cross-country trip and along the way meet a range of characters, one of whom will be played by K.Stew.
Pitt, meanwhile, will reunite with his Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominick for the thriller Killing Me Softly.
A slew of veteran international helmers will compete in Cannes next month, among them Thomas Vinterberg with The Hunt, Ken Loach with The Angel's Share, Leos Carax with Holy Motors, and Abbas Kiarostami with Like Someone in Love.
While several notable films will screen out of competition including Dario Argento's Dracula, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and acclaimed director Philip Kaufman's upcoming HBO film Hemingway & Gelhorn.
Italian auteur Nanni Moretti will head this year's jury. Closing out the festivities will be the Audrey Tautou drama Therese D.
Here's the complete lineup of films in competition:
•Amour (directed by Michael Haneke)
•The Angel's Share (directed by Ken Loach)
•Baad eL Mawkeaa (directed by Yousry Nasrallah)
•Beyond the Hills (directed by Cristian Mungiu)
•Cosmopolis (directed by David Cronenberg)
•Holy Motors (directed by Leos Carax)
•The Hunt (directed by Thomas Vinterberg)
•In Another Country (directed by Hong Sang-Soo)
•Im Nebels (directed by Sergei Loznitsa)
•Killing Them Softly (directed by Andrew Dominik)
•Lawless (directed by John Hillcoat)
•Like Someone in Love (directed by Abbas Kiarostami)
•Moonrise Kingdom (directed by Wes Anderson)
•Mud (directed by Jeff Nichols)
•On the Road (directed by Walter Salles)
•Paradies: Liebe (directed by Ulrich Seidl)
•The Paperboy (directed by Lee Daniels)
•Post Tenebras Lux (directed by Carlos Reygadas)
•Reality (dir. Matteo Garrone)
•Rust & Bone (directed by Jacques Audiard)
•Taste of Money (directed by Im Sang-Soo)
•Vous N'Avez Encoure Rien Vu (directed by Alain Resnais)
•Therese D. (directed by Claude Miller)