“Cinema is not dead,” declared the artistic director of the Festival de Cannes, Thierry Frémaux, as he announced more than 60 films that will feature in the various strands of the official selection, as the world’s most famous film festival returns, after a year off for the pandemic.

The opening film – screening as part of the official competition – will be Annette, the first English-language film from French director Leos Carax, who’s previously been in contention for the Palme d’Or with Pola X and Holy Motors.  Other French directors in the programme include François Ozon, who’s back in competition for the fourth time, with Everything Went Fine, Bruno Dumont, whose France is his fourth film up for the top prize, Mia Hansen-Løve with her English-language film Bergman Island and a previous Palme d’Or winner Jacques Audiard, with Paris 13th District.

Other former winners in the line-up include Italy’s Nanni Moretti, with Three Floors and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, with Memoria.

A Hero, from Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, is his fourth film in competition at Cannes, and the Australian, Justin Kurzel, returning after Macbeth with Nitram.

After Basic Instinct and Elle, the veteran Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is back in competition with Benedetta. Norway’s Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World will be his second film in competition. The American actor-turned-director Sean Penn will be back in competition for the third time, with Flag Day. Wes Anderson, who opened the festival with Moonrise Kingdom, is back with The French Dispatch, which was pulled from last year’s unscreened selection. Another American, Sean Baker, makes the jump from the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, where he made his name with The Florida Project, to the big time, with Red Rocket.

A total of 24 films have, so far, been announced in the Official Competition, but there’s speculation that a higher profile Hollywood film might be included in the line-up closer to the time.

Another two higher profile American directors, Todd Haynes and Tom McCarthy, are screening their latest films, The Velvet  Underground and Stillwater, out of competition.

The only British film in the official selection is Cow, from Andrea Arnold, which is screening as part of a new strand, called Cannes Premiere, which includes Oliver Stone’s JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s film about her mother, Jane Birkin, Jane Par Charlotte.

While Cannes is an opportunity for films to build up a profile that can see them push towards Oscar recognition, Netflix – which has increasingly been dominating awards season – won’t be screening any films on the Croisette this year; in order to be eligible for the Official Competition, films have to screen in French cinemas, but Netflix prefers to launch its productions directly on its own platform and it doesn’t want to downgrade its films by screening them in lesser programming strands at Cannes.

Originally scheduled for May, the 74th edition of the event has been delayed until July, in the hope that there’ll be fewer coronavirus restrictions in place, but as things stand, fewer delegates are expected to attend than normal, because of restrictions on entering and returning from France – and the regular Covid tests for those who do make it to the Croisette.

And here is the full line-up: