AFTER Slumdog Millionaire’s Oscar triumph, the British film industry is hoping for another prize-winning performance, this time at the Cannes film festival.

Three films with strong British links are contesting big prizes, including at least two going for the coveted Palme d’Or, compared with none last year. The charge is led by an unlikely co-operation between the former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona and Ken Loach, a director known for gritty working-class films. Looking for Eric, starring and co-produced by Cantona, tells the story of a divorced Manchester postman obsessed by the footballer. Contestants for the main prizes at Cannes will be announced on Thursday, and the winners will be selected at next month’s festival by a jury chaired by Isabelle Huppert, the French film star.

Loach’s film is lighter and more whimsical than most of his productions, including The Wind That Shakes The Barley, a film about Irish nationalism that won the Palme d’Or in 2006. The former footballer plays himself as a “spiritual sage” who helps steer the postman through postdivorce depression.

“Very few players captured the public imagination like Cantona,” said Loach, whose first big film success was Kes.

Another British-linked film nominated for the Palme d’Or is Bright Star, which tells the story of the 19th-century poet John Keats and his lover Fanny Brawne. It is directed by the New Zealander Jane Campion. Bright Star was shot in Britain and stars the British actor Ben Whishaw as Keats.

Another leading contender for awards at Cannes will be The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, made by Terry Gilliam. It is the last film to star Heath Ledger, although he died before it was completed.

Other British films at Cannes are expected to include Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank and Philip Ridley’s Heartless. Arnold, who was praised at Cannes for her Red Road in 2006, has made another film about an unruly teenage schoolgirl. Ridley, whose latest is a horror movie, has recently been concentrating onhis career as a children’s writer.

The festival, which opens on May 13 with the 3D Pixar film Up, is also expected to include the latest from Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds (sic) tells of a group of Jewish-American soldiers parachuted into Vichy France.

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