Cannes 2012: the films to look forward to - in pictures

Wes Anderson's much-hyped opener, Moonrise Kingdom, is playing in competition. Let's hope this story about townsfolk searching for runaway teens sees Anderson back on form Photograph: PR

Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or in 2006 with The Wind That Shakes the Barley; he's back in Cannes with The Angels' Share, a Scottish-set whisky-heist comedy Photograph: PR

Michael Haneke, a virtual fixture at Cannes, on the set of Amour, his study of an elderly couple coping with the after-effects of a stroke. The director's last film, The White Ribbon, won the Palme Photograph: PR

Standout in the Un Certain Regard section: 7 Days in Havana. The seven-chapter portmanteau film features some very classy behind-the-camera talent, including Julio Medem, Gaspar Noé and Laurent Cantet Photograph: PR

Little has been heard of Romanian director Cristian Mungiu since 2007's stunning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but now he's back in competition with Beyond the Hills, the story of a nun whose childhood friend tries to persuade her to leave a convent Photograph: PR

The glamour film of this year's competition: Twilight's Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg's Don DeLillo adaptation, about a stock trader stuck in a stretch limo for 24 hours. Will it be Cronenberg's breakthrough to mass audiences? Photograph: PR

Matteo Garrone was the man behind the electrifying mafia film Gomorrah; his new one is about the TV industry and reality shows and is, appropriately enough, called Reality Photograph: PR

Leos Carax has been missing in action since 1999's Pola X, but French cinema's eternal enfant terrible is finally back, with the characteristically deranged-sounding Holly Motors. His regular collaborator Denis Lavant stars as a man able to jump between different consciousnesses Photograph: PR

The dark horse of the competition is Ukranian director Sergei Loznitsa, hitherto best known for documentaries. He follows his 2010 Cannes entry, My Joy, with second world war-set yarn In the Fog. Described as an 'existential drama about a man trying to make a moral choice under the immoral circumstances', it follows a railway worker in 1942 Belarus accused of being a collaborator Photograph: PR

This star-stuffed adaptation of Matt Bondurant's novel The Wettest County boasts actors of the calibre of Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy and Jessica Chastain, as well as a script by Nick Cave. John 'The Road' Hillcoat directs; much is expected Photograph: PR

Cannes perennial Abbas Kiarostami is back once again, with an even odder-sounding effort than his last one, Certified Copy. For Like Someone in Love, he's headed to Japan, there to tell the story of a young student's relationship with an elderly academic Photograph: PR

Jeff Nichols is the man behind US indies Shotgun Stories and Cannes' Critics Week selection Take Shelter. Now he's graduated to the official selection with Mud, starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey plays a fugitive whose efforts to escape from a river island are helped by two kids Photograph: PR

Jacques Audiard has become arguably France's most exciting director; he's followed the searing A Prophet with Rust and Bone, adapted from a short story collection by Craig Davidson. Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts and Céline Sallette star Photograph: PR

Since Festen, his stunning 1996 debut, Thomas Vinterberg has struggled to find a worthy follow-up. We're hoping for good things from The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen and described as 'a modern tale of a witch hunt' in a small Danish town Photograph: PR

Im Sang-soo made a global splash with his 2010 film The Housemaid, which Peter Bradshaw called 'a big, brassy suspense thriller'. The South Korean is back with The Taste of Money, a drama set in the world of Korea's plush executive dynasties Photograph: PR