Cannes 2014: the lineup in pictures

Grace of Monaco: The Cote d’Azur splashes into the screening room for the opening night gala. Nicole Kidman brings the Grace, Tim Roth adds the Rainier, while the narrative twists and turns towards the final crunch. Disclaimers at the ready. “The royal family wishes to stress that this film in no way constitutes a biopic,” said Rainier’s children in a statement. XB Photograph: The Weinstein Company

Mr Turner: Mike Leigh’s grand labour of love biopic stars Timothy Spall as 19th-century painter JWS Turner. The oil has found the canvas and the unveiling is booked for May. But will this take the prize? XB Photograph: Film4

Jimmy's Hall: Ken Loach makes what looks to be his Cannes competition swansong with Jimmy’s Hall, a tale of an Irish communist’s homecoming, which comes billed as the great director’s last dramatic feature. The festival organisers look set to send him off with all pomp and ceremony. XB Photograph: Entertainment One

Maps to the Stars: David Cronenberg’s last Cannes competition entry, Cosmopolis, sent Robert Pattinson prowling through midtown Manhattan as a master of the universe. This one has him at large in the still shallower waters of modern-celebrity. Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska and John Cusack round out the cast. XB Photograph: Prospero Pictures

Clouds of Sils Maria: Juliette Binoche is the fading grande-dame, Chloë Grace Moretz the rising young starlet, while Kristen Stewart plays PA in the middle. Olivier Assayas’s drama sounds like an intriguing shotgun wedding of All About Eve and Persona. XB Photograph: IFC Films

The Homesman: Tommy Lee Jones picked up a Cannes prize for his 2005 western The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. He’s back on the pioneer trail with The Homesman, ushering Meryl Streep and Hilary Swank on a fraught mission out west. XB Photograph: Nicolas Guerin/Corbis

Two Days, One Night: having won two Palme d’Ors already, the Dardenne brothers are aiming for the hat trick. Make way for Marion Cotillard as the imperilled employee, racing against the clock to safeguard her job in recession-hit Belgium. XB Photograph: PR

Winter Sleep: there are few directors more loved by the Cannes establishment than Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who appears to have an open reservation in festival competition. The acclaimed art-house film-maker is keeping mum about his latest work, though he does concede that it’s “about humans”. XB Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

Foxcatcher: Steve Carell plays it straight in the real-life story of John Eleuthère du Pont, an eccentric millionaire whose tussle with wrestling champion brothers Dave and Mark Schultz lead to murder. Despicable Me this ain't. Carell is reportedly on steely, terrifying form as the unpredictable du Pont and is already being tipped for an Oscar nomination next year. Seriously – don't take your kids to this. HB Photograph: PR

The Search: The Search was a 1948 holocaust drama starring Montgomery Clift as an American GI who helps a concentration camp survivor find his missing mother. Now the tale has been updated, shunted over to Chechnya and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, who won an Oscar for The Artist. XB Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

Leviafan: it’s a Russian re-telling of the story of Job, spotlighting the battle of wits between a crooked mayor and the local grease-monkey. It stars Alexey Serebryakov and Elena Lyadova. It might be great; it could win the prize. But don’t expect high celebrity attendance at the premiere of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s harsh human drama. XB Photograph: Claudio Onorati/EPA

Timbuktu: Mauritanian-born film-maker Abderrahmane Sissako (pictured) introduces the grisly true story of a young unmarried couple who were publicly stoned to death by extremists for not being married. HB Photograph: Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images

Still the Water: a boy, a girl, together on a remote island. What could possibly happen next? Naomi Kawase, Grand Prix winner in 2007 for The Mourning Forest, hopes to fondle the Palme fronds this time around. HB Photograph: PR

Farewell to Language: Jean-Luc Godard ambles back to Cannes with the follow-up to his 2010 cinema commentary Film Socialisme. Likely to start deconstructing the idea of film-making and narrative within the first 10 minutes, but then if you built it up, you can tear it down. HB Photograph: Jean-Christophe Bott/EPA

The Captive: (more) arthouse prisoners. Atom Egoyan (pictured) recruits Ryan Reynolds as this year's grizzled dad who mislays a daughter. Rosario Dawson is on hand to help him work out whodunnit. Wrap up warm: this one looks deliciously icy. HB
Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Mommy: Barely has Canadian director Xavier Dolan (pictured) scraped the mud from the boots of Tom at the Farm then he's back. Mommy is about a woman raising her teenage son with the help of a mysterious neighbour. This is his fifth feature and his first time in competition. He is 25 years old. He wants to try and make something of himself, that one. HB Photograph: Christophe Karaba/EPA

Saint Laurent: Bertrand Bonello swaps cat house for fashion house with a biopic of the famed fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. His last Cannes premiere, House of Tolerance, stalked after a group of happy-go-lucky prostitutes who skipped gaily around in their skimpies. Saint Laurent is more interested in the man who might have designed them. HB Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA

Savage Tales: Co-produced by Pedro and Agustín Almodovar’s El Deseo company and written and directed by Damián Szifron. Six separate stories about how the modern workplace can get you down, rile you up and turn you screwy. We have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THAT'S LIKE OK?!?!?!?!?! HB Photograph: PR

Le Meraviglie: Alice Rohrwacher's story about a teenage girl living in Umbria who befriends a German ruffian who's enlisted into rehab. Rohrwacher's earlier film, Corpo Celeste, made waves in Cannes in 2011. HB
Photograph: AGF/Rex