Tarantino, Coixet among celebrated filmmakers to compete at Cannes

New movies from Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Isabel Coixet and other celebrated filmmakers from around the globe will vie for the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Organizers of the 62nd edition of the cinematic celebration on the French Riviera revealed on Thursday the films in competition for the May 13-24 event.

Tarantino made the cut for his eccentrically titled Second World War saga Inglourious Basterds, while Lee will unveil his film Taking Woodstock, based on a true story of the man who volunteered his family's motel and event permit to the organizers of the landmark 1960s music fest.

Spanish filmmaker Coixet, known for dramas like Elegy and My Life without Me, tries her hand at a thriller with Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, about a fish market employee who moonlights as a contract killer.

Stiff competition will come from notable contenders such as:

• Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces) by Pedro Almodovar.
• Bright Star by Jane Campion.
• Looking for Eric by Ken Loach.
• Chun Feng Chen Zui De Ye Wan (Spring Fever) by Lou Ye.
• Das weisse band (The White Ribbon) by Michael Haneke.
• Vengeance by Johnnie To.
• Visage (Face) by Tsai Ming-liang.
• Antichrist by Lars von Trier.
• Bak-Jwi (Thirst) by Park Chan-wook.
• Les herbes folles by Alain Resnais.

Rounding out the list are:

• Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold.
• Un prophète by Jacques Audiard.
• Vincere by Marco Bellocchio.
• A l'origine (In the Beginning) by Xavier Giannoli.
• Kinatay by Brillante Mendoza.
• Enter the Void by Gaspar Noe.
• The Time That Remains by Elia Suleiman.

Films screening out of competition include Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (starring the late Heath Ledger), Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell and Michel Gondry's L'Epine dans le Coeur.

For the first time, Cannes will open with an animated 3-D feature: the adventure tale Up, the latest film from celebrated studio Pixar. Closing the festival this year will be Jan Kounen's Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, about the relationship between the fashion and musical icons.

As previously announced, French actress Isabelle Huppert will chair this year's jury deciding the winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or.

She will be joined on the panel by actresses Asia Argento, Shu Qi, and Robin Wright Penn, as well as filmmakers Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey), James Gray (U.S.), Hanif Kureishi (U.K.) and Lee Chang-Dong (Korea).