With finals looming, leave it up to the festival honchos to make me care even less about school than I already do. After today's announcement of the Cannes line-up, I want nothing more than to be in France as soon as possible, and to just sleep through the time remaining before I get to leave.

The most anticipated release for me is the one film I was already pretty sure was going to be in competition: Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, which I suspect needs very little introduction. Early reviews of the script described it as predictably ambitious and brilliant, so the only remaining question is whether Kaufman the neophyte director has the formal chops to pull off the translation. Let's hope he was paying close attention when on set with Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.

Joining Synecdoche, New York as American submissions to the fest are Steven Soderbergh's epic biopic Che and Clint Eastwood's The Changeling. Set for release in two parts (entitled Guerilla and The Argentine) later this year, Che will premiere at Cannes in its full 4-hour form. And although the idea of a 4-hour long biopic about every annoying college kid's favorite terrorist doesn't exactly get my heart a-pounding, I'm interested to see what Soderbergh does with his first real prestige film since Traffic. I don't know anything about The Changeling beyond what's in all the press reports - it's a period kidnapping movie starring Angelina Jolie - but Clint's been on quite a tear as of late.

Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are returning to Cannes with Le Silence de Lorna, and although they are probably pretty much out of the running for the Palme d'Or (they've already won it twice recently, in 1999 for Rosetta and 2005 for L'enfant), the brothers are responsible for some of the most consistently stunning films of the decade. I don't know what the film is about, but I bet it involves an economically downtrodden protagonist, a deep sense of humanist Christian morality and lots and lots of handheld camera work.

Two French films were announced today, with a third to come later. Arnaud Desplechin, responsible for 2004's great Kings and Queen, is in with A Christmas Story, starring Mathieu Almaric as a man who wants nothing more for Christmas than a shiny Red Ryder BB gun. And Philippe Garrel, ignored by Cannes in the past and a critical favorite for 2005's Regular Lovers, has La Frontiere de l'aube, starring Louis Garrel as a man haunted by his ex-girlfriend's ghost.

Other name directors at the fest include Atom Egoyan, whose critical cache has fallen significantly since his back-to-back masterpieces in the 90s (Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter), is in with Adoration, which is apparently about how the internet affects teens' since of identity. Should be interesting, and there's no three-way sex-scene involving Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth, which is always a plus. Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns for the third time with Three Monkeys (or, depending on who you ask, Daydreams). I haven't seen Ceylan's debut, Distant, and I found his Climates formally stunning but emotionally flat. Looking forward to seeing what he has in store this time out.

Jia Zhangke has 24 City, one of only three Asian films in the fest. Wim Wenders is in with The Palermo Shooting, starring Dennis Hopper and, according to the always-reliable IMDb, Milla Jovovich, Patti Smith and Lou Reed as themselves. Walter Salles has Linha De Passe, a road movie of some sort, and Lucrecia Martel, who was responsible for the terrific The Holy Girl a few years back, has La Mujer Sin Cabeza. Martel is the lone female director with a film in competition for the Palme.

The other competition films, all of which I know very little to nothing about:
Delta (dir. Kornel Mundruczo)
Il Divo (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
Gomorra (dir. Matteo Garrone)
Leonera (dir. Pablo Trapero)
My Magic (dir. Eric Khoo)
Serbis (dir. Brillante Mendoza)
Waltz with Bashir (dir. Ari Folman) [This one's animated.]

Premiering out of competition are, as expected, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (dir. Steven Spielberg), which is apparently a Harrison Ford vehicle of some kind; Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson; The Good, the Bad, the Weird (dir. Ji-Woon Kim) and, um, Kung Fu Panda (dir. Who Cares?).

Special screenings will be offered of: Marina Zenovich's Sundance fave Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Wong Kar-wai's re-working of his Ashes of Time, Terence Davies's documentary Of Time and the City, Abel Ferrara's documentary about the Chelsea Hotel, C'Est Dur D'être Aimé Par Des Cons (dir. Daniel Leconte) and Sangue passo (dir. Marco Tullio Giordana). Premiering in Cannes' midnight screenings are Surveillance (dir. Jennifer Lynch, daughter of the greatest living American director), Emir Kusturica's soccer documentary Maradona and The Chaser (dir. Hong-Jin Na).

Bring it on. Only 20 days, 4 hours, 9 minutes and 30 seconds left. But who's counting?