This image released by Amazon Studios shows Julianne Moore in a scene from ‘Wonderstruck.’ (AP)

LOS ANGELES, May 14, (Agencies): Ask just about any critic heading to next week’s Cannes Film Festival for their thoughts on the lineup and you’ll get much the same verdict: On paper, at least, it’s one of the tastiest in years. Usually we speak of Cannes programmes being “front-loaded” or “back-loaded” in terms of major auteur works; this year, it’s simply loaded.The first two days of this year’s fest alone see premieres from Todd Haynes (“Wonderstruck”), Andrei Zvyagintsev (“Loveless”), Arnaud Desplechin (“Ismael’s Ghosts”) and Claire Denis (“Black Glasses”). The last two days, by which point the crowds usually thin out, have Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”) and Roman Polanski (“Based on a True Story”), not to mention David Lynch’s feverishly awaited “Twin Peaks” reboot.In between is an all-you-can-eat cinephile’s buffet boasting new works from Michael Haneke (“Happy End”), Sofia Coppola (“The Beguiled”), Noah Baumbach (“The Meyerowitz Stories”) and Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Killing of a Deer”), among many others.In short, anyone who decided on a curtailed Cannes trip this year is probably kicking themselves.Yet from industry pundits who tend to weigh festival selections in terms of future awards-season prospects, the reaction to Cannes’s class of 2017 is a little more muted, more “wait and see” than “gimme gimme gimme.” That’s no slight on the quality of the selections, of course: However much they feed into each other, the festival circuit and the Oscar campaign trail are two very different tracks, with sometimes differing notions of prestige.Take Ken Loach, for example. Last year, the 80-year-old doyen of social realism took his second Palme d’Or, for “I, Daniel Blake,” and extended his record as the most-selected filmmaker in Cannes Competition history. For all that Croisette love, however, none of his films has ever received a single Oscar nomination. Cannes has never been the prime hunting ground for suspected US awards “bait,” not least because of its early position in the calendar. In recent years, studios have preferred the balmy late-summer climes of Venice to launch such heavyweights as “La La Land,” “Spotlight,” “Gravity” and “Birdman,” heading straight into the autumn red-carpet rush.SuccessWhich isn’t to say Cannes can’t mint an Oscar success story. The narratives involved just tend to be more surprising and slow-burning.Last year, Isabelle Huppert picked up Cannes raves for her performance in “Elle,” but Paul Verhoeven’s nervy rape-revenge thriller was widely assumed to be a non-starter for Academy types. It took months of nurturing by Sony Pictures Classics to prove otherwise. David Mackenzie’s “Hell or High Water,” meanwhile, bowed in the Un Certain Regard section and was considerably well-received by critics, yet it still wasn’t pitched as a sure-fire Oscar player coming out of the fest. It stood tall as a solid bet when the dust of awards bait also-rans settled later in the season, however.The year before, it was Todd Haynes’ breathlessly received “Carol” that left Cannes with the strongest headwind of Oscar buzz. George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” meanwhile, enthralled the Croisette but was dismissed out of hand as an awards player. We all know which one landed a best picture nomination in the end.From the tale of a mysterious beast to a migrant who finds he can levitate after being shot on a border fence, these are the 19 movies competing in the main competition at this week’s Cannes Film Festival:WonderstruckTodd Haynes in back in period mode after his huge hit “Carol” with the first of two Amazon-backed movies to have made the cut. Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams star in the story of two deaf children living parallel lives in the 1920s and 1970s.Jupiter’s MoonHungarian director Kornel Mundruczo—who won the newcomers prize with “White” in 2014—has turned his lens on the European migrant crisis, with this story of a young refugee who discovers amazing powers when he is shot.The BeguiledSofia Coppola’s starry and much-touted American Civil War thriller, a remake of the 1971 movie with Clint Eastwood, features Colin Farrell as a wounded soldier who seduces the women around him, including Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst.RedoubtableThe buzz is also good on this cheeky “comedy” about the legendary New Wave movie director Jean-Luc Godard from Michel Hazanavicius, the man behind the whimiscal multi-Oscar winner “The Artist.”OkjaNetflix are pushing the boat out for their big-budget “E.T.”-like “creature feature” “Okja,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton, which tells the tale of a girl who risks everything to protect a shy giant animal.The Meyerowitz StoriesThe streaming giant has also snapped up Noah “While We’re Young” Baumbach’s story about a neurotic New York boho family trying to deal with their difficult artist father. Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Candice Bergen and Dustin Hoffman complete a top-notch cast.You Were Never Really HereScotland’s Lynne Ramsay made her Cannes debut with the unforgettable “Ratcatcher.” This year she will close the festival with this drama of a war veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who tries to save a victim of sex-trafficking.LovelessRussian director Andrey Zvyagintsev wowed Cannes in 2014 with “Leviathan,” a darkly funny meditation on family bonds and religion. Family is again the focus of his new film about a clan with an aversion to affection.Good TimeBilled as a grindhouse movie with a brain, New York indie brothers Benny and Josh Safdie have cast “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson as a bank robber struggling to evade the police.Happy EndNo one has ever won the Palme d’Or three times. But with Isabelle Huppert again by his side fresh from her accolades for “Elle,” Austrian-born Michael Haneke could write his place in history with this family drama set in northern France against the backdrop of the migrant crisis.The SquareThe Swedish director Ruben Ostlund best known for “Snow Therapy” was a late entry with his dystopian tale of a place without rules where people can do what they want.The Killing of a DeerNicole Kidman and Colin Farrell team up for the second time in the competition, this time in the story of a boy trying to bring a surgeon into his dysfunctional family, with disastrous consequences. With Greek maestro Yorgos Lanthimos at the helm, expect the weird.RodinGerard Depardieu has already had a go at playing France’s greatest sculptor. This time Vincent Lindon picks up the chisel to portray the artist in a biopic that marks the centenary of his death.In The FadeHamburg’s Fatih Akin of “Head-On” fame returns to home ground in a promising story of vengeance set among Germany’s Turkish community.Amant Double (The Double Lover)No one does thrillers like French director Francois “Swimming Pool” Ozon. His latest follows a young woman who falls in love with her therapist before realizing he’s not who she thought he was.120 Beats Per MinuteDrama by Franco-Moroccan director Robin Campillo set among a group of people working with an AIDS charity in Paris in the 1990s.RadianceJapan’s Naomi Kawase returns to the competition three years after her “Still the Water” with a film following a photographer whose eyesight is failing.The Day AfterSouth Korean director Hong Sang-Soo is bringing two films to Cannes. His new feature “The Day After” is in the main competition with a special screening for “Claire’s Camera,” which features Isabelle Huppert, and was partly shot during last year’s festival.A Gentle CreatureA woman tries to learn the truth about her husband held in a remote prison in Russia when a package for him is returned to her in Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s sombre story.The Cannes film festival — which starts this week — is famous for glamour and glitz. With the festival celebrating it 70th anniversary, we look back at some of the actresses who have lit up the red carpet:‘La Lollo’ vs SophiaIn the late 1950s, two curvacious Italian actresses competed for the attention of rowdy paparazzi: Gina Lollobrigida, affectionately known as “La Lollo” by fans, and Sophia Loren, born Sofia Scicolone.The press revelled in their supposed public rivalry and Cannes became a key battleground where the divas competed for the eyes and imaginations of film buffs.Loren gained the upper hand in 1962 when she won the best actress Oscar for “Two Women” by Vittorio De Sica.Even so, she still had to compete at Cannes with other rising Italian stars — Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti and Silvana Mangano — for attention.Bardot maniaThen an unknown, Brigitte Bardot first appeared at Cannes in 1953 and caused quite a sensation, lounging on the beach while Kirk Douglas plaited her hair.Fourteen years later the French star returned as an international sex symbol for the festival’s closing ceremonies in May 1967 where she was to pay tribute to Swiss actor Michel Simon, the night’s guest of honour.But photographers battled each other amid a massive crowd trying to catch a glimpse of “BB” as she enter the auditorium.Police had to fight to clear the way for Bardot as her husband Gunter Sachs pleaded for the crowd not to crush her.In bed with MadonnaAt the height of her fame in 1991, the US icon came to Cannes to present her documentary “Madonna: Truth or Dare”.Holed up in the five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, she stopped traffic on the winding roads of Cap d’Antibes for her daily 15-kilometre (10-mile) run — surrounded by 15 bodyguards.On the night of the screening, a crowd of at least 10,000 onlookers gathered in front of the Palais des Festivals to try to catch a glimpse of the star, whose limo inched through the crowd.Chaos ensued as Madonna, wrapped in a pink cloak, strolled the red carpet, before halting, turning and revealing the cream conical … designed by Jean Paul Gaultier she wore underneath.A female television presenter was thrown to the ground live on-air, as were several photographers.Sharon Stone: A star is bornIn 1992, the festival opened with the whodunnit “Basic Instinct”, an erotic thriller by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.The main female role — a novelist who stabs her victims with an ice pick while engaged in acrobatic acts — was played by US star Sharon Stone.Completely at ease and oozing glamour, Stone, up to then known for just secondary roles, caused a minor riot among cameramen as she ascended Cannes’ red carpet in a low-cut gown.Stone became a regular feature at Cannes, turning her into a worldwide star.