UPDATED 7:07 p.m. PT April 23, 2008

PARIS -- Organizers of this year's Festival de Cannes might have pulled a magic rabbit out of their berets Wednesday with an Official Competition lineup jammed with hotly anticipated films including several that prevailing wisdom dictated wouldn't be ready in time to unspool at the Palais.

The idea of such North American directors as Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Atom Egoyan and Woody Allen rubbing shoulders with Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Brazil's Walter Salles, Germany's Wim
 Wenders and Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai certainly raises the bar of anticipation to that of the 2002 lineup, which produced "The Pianist," "About Schmidt" and "City of God."

As Festival de Cannes president Gilles Jacob and GM Thierry Fremaux announced the majority of the lineup in Paris for the 61st edition that runs May 14-25, they said that there will be fewer films than last year's 60th anniversary blowout.

Spielberg will have his "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at Cannes, but the film won't open the festival as previously announced, Fremaux said. The closing-night film is expected to be Barry Levinson's Hollywood-set "What Just Happened?"

The festival's biggest coups came with films still in frantic postproduction. Despite fears that his "Changeling" might not be finished in time for Cannes, Eastwood reportedly rushed to complete the Angelina Jolie starrer in time for a festival slot. Ditto Steven Soderbergh, who will bring "Che," his four-hour biopic about Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, to the Competition.

"It's not a typo -- the film really does last four hours." Fremaux said.

Charlie Kaufman will fly the stars and stripes alongside Eastwood and Soderbergh, with the writer's first outing in the director's chair, "Synecdoche, New York," set to unspool.

French screen influence will be as strong as ever as Catherine Deneuve heads to the red carpet with Arnaud Desplechin's family drama "A Christmas Tale." The film co-stars a who's who of Gallic talent including Mathieu Amalric, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Melvil Poupaud and Deneuve's daughter, Chiara Mastroianni.

French presence on its home turf also was bolstered as director Philippe Garrel landed a Competition slot for the first time in his 40-year-plus career. His "La Frontiere de l'aube" stars his son Louis alongside another famous offspring, Nathalie Baye's daughter, Laura Smet.

A third French title will be added to the Competition lineup in the coming days, Fremaux said.

Riviera regulars the Dardenne brothers are back with their sixth film, "Le Silence de Lorna," about a young Albanian woman hoping to realize her dreams in Belgium.

DreamWorks' animated "Kung Fu Panda" will bring comedy and martial arts to an Out of Competition slot alongside Allen, who comes with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," and South Korean Kim Ji-woon, who arrives with "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird."

Also In Competition, Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra" takes an inside look at Italy's modern-day Mafia, while Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo" tells the story of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

Fremaux and company also sprinkled the Competition lineup with two Argentine titles: Lucrecia Martel's "La Mujer sin cabeza" and Pablo Trapero's "Leonera."

Asian films are notably absent from this year's lineup, with Jia Zhangke's "24 City" from China and Eric Khoo's "My Magic" from Singapore the lone titles from that continent.

Eastern European fare also is missing from the fest's main dish, with only Hungarian Kornel Mundruczo trying his luck with incest drama "Delta."

"A film festival is characterized as much by the films it accepts as the films it refuses," Jacob said.

After looking at 1,692 films -- up from last year's 1,615 -- the selection committee has picked 19 for Competition slots and plans to add one more to the list in the coming days.

"Can you imagine how many DVDs were piled up in our office?" Fremaux said.

Croisette favorite Ceylan will represent Turkey with "Uc Maymun," and Filipino director Brillante Mendoza will follow last year's Cannes entry "Foster Child" with his latest directorial effort, "Serbis."

Israeli director Ari Folman will present an unprecedented format for the Cannes Competition, namely the animated documentary "Waltz With Bashir," about Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Rounding the Competition are Wenders' "The Palermo Shooting," Salles' "Linah de Passe" and Egoyan's "Adoration."

After last year's star-studded, special screenings-filled romp to celebrate 60 years of the festival, organizers have decided to decrease the number of films screened, plan fewer concurrent events and "concentrate on cinema," Fremaux said.

Although 12 special screenings were held at last year's festival, the 2008 edition will include only five, notably Wong's "Ashes of Time Redux," a reworking of his martial arts film "Ashes of Time" 12 years after its release.

Emir Kusturica will hold a Midnight Screening of his soccer docu "Maradona," and Jennifer Lynch will follow in her father David's footsteps and head to the Croisette with "Surveillance," also in the Midnight Screenings category.

"The process was long, complicated and difficult," Jacob said. "We're in a post-anniversary year. This year, a lot of the big European directors are working, so they don't have films ready to show yet. We needed to find new names."

The winners and losers from the Competition will be picked by a jury that is headed by Sean Penn and includes Natalie Portman, Italian director-screenwriter Sergio Castellitto, German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron and French director Rachid Bouchareb, whose "Days of Glory" was a festival favorite when it screened in 2006.

The Competition lineup is on the next page.



IN COMPETITION:

UC MAYMUN
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey

LE SILENCE DE LORNA
Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium

UN CONTE DE NOEL
Director: Arnaud Desplechin, France

CHANGELING
Director: Clint Eastwood, U.S.

ADORATION
Director: Atom Egoyan, Israel

WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Director: Ari Folman, Israel

LA FRONTIERE DE L'AUBE
Director: Philippe Garrel, France

GOMORRA
Director: Matteo Garrone, Italy

24 CITY
Director: Jia Zhangke, China

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Director: Charlie Kaufman, U.S.

MY MAGIC
Director: Eric Khoo, Singapore

LA MUJER SIN CABEZA
Director: Lucrecia Martel, Argentina

SERBIS
Director: Brillante Mendoza, Philippines

DELTA
Director: Kornel Mundruczo, Hungary

LINHA DE PASSE
Director: Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas, Brazil

CHE
Director: Steven Soderbergh, U.S.

IL DIVO
Paolo Sorrentino, Italy

LEONERA
Director: Pablo Trapero, Argentina

THE PALERMO SHOOTING
Director: Wim Wenders, Germany

OUT OF COMPETITION

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Director: Steven Spielberg, U.S.

KUNG-FU PANDA
Directors: Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, U.S.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD
Director: Ji-Woon Kim, South Korea

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Director: Woody Allen, U.S., Spain

SPECIAL SCREENINGS:

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
Director: Marina Zenovich, U.S., U.K.

ASHES OF TIME REDUX
Director: Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong

OF TIME AND THE CITY
Director: Terence Davies, U.K.

SANGUE PAZZO
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy, France

C'EST DUR D'ETRE AIME PAR DES CONS
Director: Daniel Leconte, France

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:

MARADONNA
Director: Emir Kusturica, Spain, France

SURVEILLANCE
Director: Jennifer Lynch, U.S.

THE CHASER
Director: Na Hong-jin, South Korea

SPECIAL JURY PRESIDENT'S SCREENING

THE THIRD WAVE
Director: Alison Thompson, U.S.

UN CERTAIN REGARD:

TOKYO!
Directors: Bong Joon Ho, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry, France

*AFTERSCHOOL
Director: Antonio Campos, U.S.

*TING CHE
Director: Chung Mong-Hong, Taiwan

SOI COWBOY
Director: Thomas Clay, U.K.

LA VIE MODERNE (PROFILS PAYSANS)
Director: Raymond Depardon, France

WOLKE 9
Director: Andreas Dresen, Germany

*TULPAN
Director: Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany

LOS BASTARDOS
Director: Amat Escalante, Mexico

CHELSEA ON THE ROCKS
Director: Abel Ferrera, U.S.

JE VEUX VOIR
Director: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, France

O' HORTEN
Director: Bent Hamer, Norway, Germany

*MILH HADHA AL-BAHR
Director: Annemarie Jacir, Palestine

TOKYO SONATA
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan

YI BAN HAISHUI, YI BAN HUOYAN
Director: Fendou Liu, China

*A FESTA DA MENINA MORTA
Director: Matheus Nachtergaele, Brazil

DE OFRIVILLIGA
Director: Ruben Ostlund, Sweden

WENDY AND LUCY
Director: Kelly Reichardt, U.S.

JOHNNY MAD DOG
Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, France

*VERSAILLES
Director: Pierre Schoeller, France

TYSON
Director: James Toback, U.S.

* eligible for the Camera d'Or

CINEFONDATION:

BA YUE SHI WU
Director: Jiang Xuan, U.S.

BLIND SPOT
Director: Johanna Bessiere, Cecile Dubois Herry, Simon Rouby, Nicolas Chauvelot, Olivier Clert, Yvon Jardel, France

ET DANS MON COEUR, J'EMPORTERAI ...,
Director: Yoon Sung-A, Belgium

FORBACH
Director: Claire Burger, France

GATA
Director: Diana Mkrtchyan, Russia

GESTERN IN EDEN
Director: Jan Speckenbach, Germany

HIMNON (ANTHEM)
Director: Elad Keidan, Israel

ILLUSION DWELLERS
Director: Rob Ellender, U.K.

INTERIOR. SCARA DE BLOC
Director: Ciprian Alexandrescu, Romania

KESTOMERKITSIJAT
Director: Juho Kuosmanen, Finland

THE MAID
Director: Heidi Saman, U.S.

NAUS
Director: Lukas Glaser, Czech Republic

O SOM E O RESTO
Director: Andre Lavaquial, Brazil

EL RELOJ
Director: Marco Berger, Argentina

SHTIKA (SILENCE)
Director: Hadar Morag, Israel

STOP
Director: Park Jae-ok, South Korea

THIS IS A STORY ABOUT TED AND ALICE
Director: Teressa Tunney, U.S.

SHORTS IN COMPETITION:

411-Z
Director: Daniel Erdelyi, Hungary

BUEN VIAJE (BON VOYAGE)
Director: Javier Palleiro, Guillermo Rocamora, Spain

DE MOINS EN MOINS
Director: Melanie Laurent, France

EL DESEO (THE DESIRE)
Director: Marie Benito, Mexico

JERRYCAN
Director: Julius Avery, Australia

LOVE YOU MORE
Director: Sam Taylor Wood, U.K.

MEGATRON
Director: Marian Crisan, Romania

MY RABBIT HOPPY
Director: Anthony Lucas, Australia

SMAFUGLAR
Director: Runar Runarsson, Iceland,

MAIN JURY:

Sean Penn, president
Sergio Castellitto
Natalie Portman
Alfonso Cuaron
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Alexandra Maria Lara
Rachid Bouchareb

Un Certain Regard jury president: Fatih Akin
Camera D'Or jury president: Bruno Dumont
Cinefondation jury president: Hou Hsiao-hsien