One of France's most important cultural and business events, The Cannes International Film Festival is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Since its creation in 1946, the Festival de Cannes has served as the prime setting to showcase the world's best film-making.

Each year over 2,200 films are submitted for consideration from hundreds of countries. Directors, producers and agents work the crowds in pursuit of lucrative movie deals whilst Cannes winners often emerge as the year's most talked-about films.

The 60th Cannes International Film Festival runs this year from May 16 to 27. Opening the festival this year will be Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights. Fans of Wong Kar Wai (2046, In The Mood For Love) will be familiar with his particular brand of cinema: a hyper sensual, retina-ravishing aesthetic of colour, mood and emotion that seduces the viewer with a sensory intensity rarely found in contemporary film.

In addition to Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights competing for the prestigious Palme D'or, Gus Vant Sant and Quentin Tarentino are also in competition with Paranoid Park and Death Proof (formerly known as the anticipated Grindhouse double bill with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror). Tarantino won the coveted Palme D'Or in 1994 with Pulp Fiction.

This years festival will also see Steven Soderbergh's Oceans Thirteen, Michael Moore's Sicko and Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart screening as 'out of competition' films.

Martin Scorsese, with several other directors, will announce during the Festival de Cannes the launch of the World Cinema Foundation, devoted to the preservation and restoration of the masterpieces of world cinema. Scorsese will give an outstanding Cinema Masterclass evoking his work as a director and his passion for the cinema.

On Sunday May 27th, during the closing ceremony, he will also present the Cam�ra d'or prize to the director of the best first film shown at the Festival de Cannes. Winner of the Palme d'or in 1976 with Taxi Driver and President of the Jury in 1998, this year Martin Scorsese won Best Director and Best Film Oscars for The Departed (Les Infiltr�s).

Stephen Frears resides as the President of the Jury. Revealed in 1985 with My Beautiful Laundrette, Stephen Frears presented his award-winning Prick up Your Ears in 1987 in the Official Selection at the Festival de Cannes. Stephen Frears' latest film, The Queen, has proven his greatest success ever in Great Britain.

Diane Kruger will be the Master of Ceremonies, welcoming on May 16th the Preseident Stephen Frears and his jury which also include actresses Maggie Cheung (2046, Hero), Toni Collette (Sixth Sence, Muriels Wedding) and Maria De Medeiros (Pulp Fiction, The Saddest Music in the World) along with Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk and French actor/director Michel Piccoli.

We will bringing you all the latest from Cannes throughout the festival.