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Film festivals might be known for discovering new talent, but next month’s Cannes event will be full of heavyweight directors after Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee and Ken Loach were today named as competitors for the top prize.

Famous actors are also in abundance at the French festival, with Heath Ledger’s last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, being shown out of competition.

Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law all stepped in to split what remained of Ledger’s role in the Terry Gilliam movie after Ledger died part-way through filming.

But despite the strong show of world-famous names, Europeans are set to dominate the Cannes Film Festival while America is decidedly absent from the competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or.

The 2007 event was awash with US film makers, including Clint Eastwood, Gus Van Sant and the Coen Brothers, but this year Tarantino is the only American vying for the prize. His chances rest with the typically brutal and lengthy film Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt.

The return of a British presence, after last year's surprise absence, will provide competition for Tarantino, notably in the form of Cannes veteran Loach, who has been shortlisted for the prize nine times and won in 2006 for The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Loach will show Looking For Eric, the story of a football fanatic in crisis, while fellow Brit Andrea Arnold has also been selected and will show her second feature film, Fish Tank.

Taiwanese-born Lee, famed for The Ice Storm and Brokeback Mountain, has been selected for the Sixties-set Taking Woodstock.

New Zealand director Jane Campion, who found world-wide acclaim with The Piano, will unveil Bright Star, a return to period drama after mixed reviews with contemporary films Holy Smoke and In The Cut.

Other directors up for the Palme d’Or include Austrian Michael Haneke, Spaniard Park Chan-wook and the French film maker Jacques Audiard.

The festival opener is the 3D Pixar animation Up, while the already controversial Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky will close the event.

The festival runs from May 13 to 24.

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