The 68^th Annual Cannes Film Festival revealed its official lineup of film selections on Thursday. English language dramas from Todd Haynes, Denis Villenueve, Justin Kurzel, Gus Van Sant, Paolo Sorrentine and Matteo Garrone are among the many films that will compete for the Palme d'Or.

There will also be new films by Valeria Donzelli, Jacques Audiard, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jia Zhangke at the festival.

This year's festival appears to feature more Hollywood stars than any of those in the recent past. One of the two U.S. Directors in the competition, Todd Haynes, enters with "Carol," which is a 1950s lesbian love story featuring Cate Blanchett.

The other director from the United States is Van Sant, who is bringing his suicide drama, "The Sea of Trees", starring Matthe McConaughey and Ken Watanabe.

Villeneuve from Canada's entry is a Mexican drug cartel drama, called "Sicario," which features another all star cast made up of Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.

Kurzel, from Australia, has directed an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth called "Macbeth," which stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

These are all regarded as signs of the fact that film culture is and continues to become more globalized. The fact that two high profile European film directors will be debuting English language films this year adds to that reality.

Yorgos Lanthimos from Greece will be competing with a film called "The Lobster", which is a sci fi film starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz.

The Cannes Film Festival will be running from May 13-24 this year.