This year's selection in Cannes, while not being particularly exceptional in terms of big-name wattage, could lead to some interesting results. For example, this marks Xavier Dolan's first year bringing a film to the competition series (he's been at Cannes before, but was never in line to compete for the Palme D'Or). A win for Dolan would validate years of efforts and progress. This year also marks Jean-Luc Godard's return, so to speak.

(this is Screen Comment's second review of "Nebraska") American indie cinema also has its giants. Just like his cohorts Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman Alexander Payne has, after directing only a few movies, spearheaded this other cinema in which America and its history fill the screen and the script. As it were in “Nebraska” America is the focus. Not the one that’s portrayed by superheroes but indeed the one that we've come to gradually forget.

PARIS - A kind of good-humored anticipation is manifest inside UGC’s Normandie movie theater on the Champs Elysées: today we find out who the Cannes nominees are. I plop into a chair next to a friend, who, punctual as always, already found his seat. We come out of the theater about an hour later, our marching orders in hand. Eighteen films in the competition series, and eighteen other ones in the Un Certain Regard program.

With two first-round picks in the 2012 NFL draft the Cleveland Browns were favorites to trade up to the number two overall pick and land the rights to Heisman trophy-winner Robert Griffin, III. They were outbid by the Washington Redskins, whom Griffin would lead to the playoffs. The Browns kept their picks and chose running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden. Two short years later, neither

The Cannes Festival's Thierry Frémaux and Gilles Jacob will be holding their annual press conference this Thursday here in Paris. The full list of films competing for the Palme D'Or and the Un Certain Regard will be revealed then. Already confirmed for the May 14-25 festival is opener "Grace of Monaco" starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly. Here's our guess as to who else will be on that list:

Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) are vampires living between Detroit and Tangiers. He is a reclusive rock star going through a personal crisis and collecting rare guitars and living in a Detroit that's a shell of its former self. Eve, a distinguished bookworm, wanders the streets of Tangiers at night and gets accosted by shady street vendors desirous to cater to all her whims, except the one that's most essential. Adam and Eve

The name Pierre Dulaine might ring familiar to film lovers. His years spent teaching ballroom dancing inspired the screenplay for the feature film “Take the Lead,” (2006) starring Antonio Banderas and Liz Friedlander. In that film Dulaine, who is a quadruple-ballroom dancing world champion, launched several schools in New York and encouraged social diversity and bridging communities together. Born in Jaffa of Palestinian