Buyers at the Cannes Film Festival have been so uninspired by most of the movies in the official selection, let alone the market, that many of them are returning home empty-handed this weekend.

The weak dollar, along with the rain on the French Riviera, may have dampened enthusiasm for films picked to compete for the Palme d'Or. A tepid Cannes market has been lean on deal-making among American studios and independent distributors.

Before their screening, Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara films, The Argentine and Guerrilla, had been described as the most-anticipated pictures in competition, but they are among many movies that have failed to live up to expectations.

Although its director has an impressive track record that includes Sex, Lies and Videotape, which won the Palme d'Or in 1989, buyers have found themselves wary of taking on two Spanish-language films with a combined running time of four hours.

For many, James Gray's Two Lovers, a romance set in New York, has also failed to live up to its pre-festival hype. Although the A-list actors Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix, are among those being tipped for possible awards tomorrow night , the film has been dismissed by some buyers as too small and not particularly moving.

Steven Zeitchik, of The Hollywood Reporter, said: “Last year studios drove bidding on James Gray's We Own the Night up to $11.5 million, but this year buyers circled Gray's Two Lovers warily. Larger companies just seemed gun-shy about pulling the trigger.”

With the Palme d'Or and other prizes being awarded tomorrow, few can point to obvious prizewinning candidates this year, although many believe that one of the strongest contenders is Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah, an unsentimental and harrowing mafia movie that is being described as one of cinema's most realistic films on organised crime. The Times predicted that the film would be a commercial success as well as a critical one.

While Benicio del Toro's performance in the title role of Che has been tipped for the actor's prize, the best actress accolade could go to either Angelina Jolie, for her compelling performance as a distraught mother of a missing boy in Clint Eastwood's Changeling (billed as L'Échange in Cannes), or Catherine Deneuve, for Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale.

Robert De Niro's film, What Just Happened?, is screened tomorrow, as the closing film, but has already been condemned by Screen International.

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