Cannes film festival 2009: the key films

The Cannes film festival has announced its lineup for 2009. The festival opens on 13 May with Pixar's Up, about an elderly loner voiced by Ed Asner who chooses a slightly unorthodox way to see the world – it's the first animated film ever to raise the curtain at the festival Photograph: PR

Festival favourite Lars von Trier returns to the Croisette with Antichrist, a psychological horror starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a grieving couple who retreat to their cabin in the woods (the ominously-named Eden) to re-bond as a couple. Judging by this photo, everything turns out peachy Photograph: PR

Jane Campion's Bright Star is a moody drama tracking the three-year romance between John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) Photograph: PR

The winning combo of director Pedro Almodóvar and leading lady Penélope Cruz may make a formidable team to beat at Cannes this year. Broken Embraces is a noirish thriller involving murder and plastic surgery Photograph: PR

Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus stars Heath Ledger in his final role. The film is screening out of competition Photograph: PR

British film-maker Andrea Arnold wowed the critics at Cannes with surveillance thriller Red Road in 2006. She's back with this edgy romance between a 15-year-old (played by newcomer Katie Jarvis) and her mother's new boyfriend (played by Hunger's Michael Fassbender) Photograph: PR

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds follows a violent troop of Jewish soldiers, headed by Brad Pitt, hell-bent on wiping out as many Nazis as possible Photograph: PR

Three years ago Ken Loach was the surprise winner of the Palme d'Or for The Wind That Shakes the Barley. He'll be hoping to repeat the trick with Looking for Eric, about a football fanatic postman who receives some life coaching from Eric Cantona Photograph: PR

Emile Hirsch in Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee's lighthearted look at the story behind the epochal music festival Photograph: PR

Park Chan-wook's drama Thirst, about a monk who becomes a vampire after a botched medical experiment, heads a strong Asian presence at this year's festival – other films to look out for include the latest from Johnnie To, Vengeance, and Filipino director Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay Photograph: PR

Background crucifix No 2 alert! Another festival old-stager, Michael Haneke, will be in town flying the flag for The White Ribbon. It's a parable of fascism set in a small village in northern Germany, on the eve of the first world war Photograph: PR

Gaspar Noé looks to continue the sex-and-violence agenda he first hammered home in Irréversible (2002) with Enter the Void (absolutely not to be confused with the mountaineering docudrama Touching the Void) Photograph: PR

Sam Raimi's 'feelgood horror' Drag Me to Hell, playing in a special midnight screening, is one of the few films selected that have already shown elsewhere – it was a big hit at March's SXSW Photograph: PR