The Cannes Film Festival's competition line-up

The Cannes Film Festival's competition line-up

The Cannes Film Festival's organisers on Thursday unveiled the list of 17 movies to be shown next month in the Palme d'Or competition line-up.

The rundown is not yet complete, with a couple of movies yet to be added before the 11-day festival opens on May 13.

Here are the movies announced, with nationality assigned according to its director:

- Opening film -

A French movie starring Catherine Deneuve and directed by Emmanuelle Bercot, "Standing Tall", will open the festival out of competition.

- Competition -

- "Dheepan" by French director Jacques Audiard

- "A Simple Man" by French director Stephane Brize

- "Marguerite and Julien" by French director Valerie Donzelli

- "The Tale of Tales" by Italian director Matteo Garrone

- "Carol" by US director Todd Haynes: a lesbian love story set in New York in the 1950s starring Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara

- "The Assassin", a martial arts film by Taiwanese director Hsiao-Hsien Hou

- "Mountains May Depart" by Chinese director Zhangke Jia: a story about lovers who separate in China, with the son of one exiled to Australia

- "Umimachi Diary" by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, about sisters living in the home of their grandmother

- "Macbeth" by Australian director Justin Kurzel: a movie version of Shakespeare's classic starring "X-Men" actor Michael Fassbender and French Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard and mostly shot in Britain

- "The Lobster" by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos: starring Colin Farrel and with Rachel Weisz, this is a love story set in a dystopian future where single people need to find a mate quickly or be transformed into animals

- "Mon Roi" (My King) by French director Maiwenn and starring Vincent Cassel

- "Mia Madre" (My Mother) by Italian director -- and Cannes favourite -- Nanni Moretti

- "Son of Saul" by Hungarian film director Laszlo Nemes, about an Auschwitz prisoner in World War II

- "Youth" by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, starring Rachel Weisz and featuring Michael Caine, Jane Fonda and Harvey Keitel

- "Louder Than Bombs" by Norwegian director Joachim Trier and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne and Isabelle Huppert in a drama about the husband and son of a female war photographer discovering a secret about her after her death

- "The Sea of Trees" by US director Gus Van Sant and starring Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts: about a suicidal American who meets and befriends a Japanese man lost in a forest

- "Sicario" by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro in a story about a CIA operation to bring down a Mexican cartel boss