CANNES -- Watching Bill Murray speed-shift expressions for the Palais' red-carpet paparazzi was a Festival de Cannes high point. But at the Lumiere's heavily orchestrated nighttime screenings, the most important person in the room isn't any of the stars but the auteur. At the "Broken Flowers" premiere, white-mopped director Jim Jarmusch soaked up the center spotlight, surrounded by his cast: Murray, Tilda Swinton and Julie Delpy, all video simulcast on the enormous screen.

After "Flowers," the applause was sincere. On other nights, though, the clapping often had a hollow, obligatory ring. There's a sense these days that this high-octane global festival works overtime to prop up the careers of a number of name directors around the world. As Murray pointed out at the "Flowers" press conference, "The festival is a great thing for filmmakers and others like Jim, who otherwise might find it difficult to get an audience in America."

Actually, Jarmusch got studio backing for the first time this year because he needed fast cash to start shooting as soon as he assembled his stellar cast, which also includes Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange. Focus Features' David Linde happily backed the deal, knowing going in that he could make guaranteed sales to Jarmusch's loyal worldwide distributors.

The Cannes perennials -- Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Amos Gitai, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan and Michael Haneke -- are far more prized names overseas than stateside. Most U.S. moviegoers wouldn't recognize most of them. "You almost look at this year's Competition films and don't have to worry about buying anything," says Warner Independent Pictures president Mark Gill, who, having viewed about 90 films at the festival and market, might not buy any. "They may be good, but none of them are remotely accessible to an American audience."

Then there's Woody Allen. The Oscar-winning New Yorker has gratefully attended Cannes twice now, Out of Competition. But he might have considered requesting a Competition slot because he could use a prize this year. Even though "Match Point" has been embraced as one of his most accessibly entertaining films in years, distributors have been circling warily. Like many artists who refuse input from studios, Allen has turned to raising independent financing for his movies because no U.S. companies will invest passively upfront in a $20 million picture that is likely to lose money.

Tellingly, Fox Searchlight, the distributor of Allen's last movie, "Melinda and Melinda," did not make a bid on "Point" because they are all too aware of his global numbers. They tell a harsh tale: $3.7 million in North America; $15.7 million worldwide; 25% of Allen's stateside audience are New Yorkers. Other distributors have stated the stone-cold truth: "Point" would be more commercial if it didn't have Allen's name on it. And by insisting on churning out a picture a year, Allen dilutes his currency. (By contrast, David Lynch retains his marquee value by keeping audiences waiting. Studio Canal was screening a Cannes promo reel for his new "Inland Empire," featuring a cast wearing rabbit heads.)

Talk to the distributors shopping for material here, and there's a definite disconnect between art and commerce, between the festival selection and the market. These hard-nosed professionals know what they like -- and what sells at home -- which accounts for about 35% of global boxoffice. They all chase the same holy grail: A cutting-edge, stylish English-language movie with a few names that will nab great reviews. But even that isn't a guarantee of success anymore. Several distributors on a panel at the American Pavilion this week cited critics' favorites that died from audience neglect, including Alexander Payne's abortion comedy "Citizen Ruth" and Paul Greengrass' re-creation of the Irish massacre "Bloody Sunday."

"In the last couple of years, I've gotten the money reviews and not the money," ThinkFilm distribution chief Mark Urman says. "The critics are not quite as influential. So many films that have gotten extraordinary critical support haven't worked. They're challenging films. And people don't want to be challenged to the degree that they used to. If films are dark, depressing, nasty or searing -- what used to be recommendations -- now they are turnoffs.

"Europeans are more open-minded and sophisticated," Gill says.

Even when making films in English, many of the auteurs in the Cannes competition are hard sells in America, from Van Sant ("Last Days") to Egoyan ("Where the Truth Lies") to von Trier, whose "Manderlay," a provocative sequel to "Dogville," lacks the star power of Nicole Kidman and might not play in the U.S. at all. "There's a shelf life for directors," Lions Gate Releasing president Tom Ortenberg says. "They may become very promotable; with any indie film that does not have a big cast, if you can promote the director with an authentic voice, that helps. But if they don't deliver films that audiences want to see, you end up paying a higher price on both acquisition and promotion because we know the name of certain independent directors doesn't mean audiences want to see their films anymore. To a certain point, their value has evaporated."

If Cronenberg's well-reviewed "A History of Violence" hits big, it won't be because of his name above the title, distributors say. Its star, Viggo Mortensen, will pull in the crowds, playing a rugged peace-loving Midwesterner who is forced to pick up a gun to protect his family. (New Line opens the film in December.) Even winning the Palme d'Or doesn't add much to a movie's marketing clout, distributors said. Just getting into the official selection merits a "palme" on your ads.

As for foreign-language films, they have to really wow distributors, as "Merry Christmas" and "Hidden" did here. Both were acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, the last of the specialty distributors in the business of building auteurs. But the names of their respective directors, Christian Carion and Haneke, don't add anything to their value. Only a few foreign auteurs do guarantee some boxoffice, including France's Patrice Leconte ("The Girl on the Bridge"), Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai ("In the Mood for Love") and Spain's Pedro Almodovar ("Bad Education"). According to Paramount Classics co-president Ruth Vitale, "There's really a very small profit on foreign-language films."

"They require a lot of work," added Miramax Films International's Jere Hausfater, who has been doing double duty for Disney's division and the Weinstein Co. here in Cannes. "You're in a box."

In fact, Cannes, unlike the film festivals in Sundance and Toronto, is really a prebuy market. Most of the hot sales here were on big-budget films in various stages of production that were painstakingly financed, country by country, piece by piece, around the world. Agencies such as WMA, CAA and ICM package and sell many of these projects; others are sold by foreign sales agents. Many are shot in one country to grab "soft" money from tax funds, with casts that will appeal to foreign buyers.

New Line acquired the North American rights to Cronenberg's "Violence" a year ago; the new Picturehouse's Bob Berney announced ContentFilm's Diane Arbus project "Fur" at Cannes. The Weinstein brothers were freely spending the first millions that they have raised for their new company on such films as the $40 million spy-kid flick "Stormbreaker," which has yet to cast. Universal Pictures nabbed Brian De Palma's '40s Los Angeles film noir "The Black Dahlia" last week before it completed filming in Bulgaria. Fox Searchlight's Claudia Lewis characterizes such projects as movies without borders, or "movies with no sense of auteur nationality."

Even Allen has gotten the message -- following the money, he has abandoned Manhattan for London's Notting Hill.

Anne Thompson can be reached at athompson@hollywoodreporter.com.