Dominik Moll's Lemmingwill open the 58th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).

George Lucas' StarWars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith, which had been widely tipped asthe opening film, will instead premiere out of competition in Cannes on May15, three days ahead of its French opening on May 18.

Chromophobia, byUK director Martha Fiennes,will close the festival.

Cannes festival president GillesJacob, artistic director Thierry Fremaux and managing director Veronique Caylaunveiled the line-up this morning at a press conference in Paris.

Fremaux commented: "This yearis a return to a sort of classicism. Last year allowed us to show theimportance of documentaries and animation'this year there are more genre films.Even the Cronenberg is a sort of western."

World cinema isstrongly represented in this year's selection with twenty films in the maincompetition from thirteen different countries. That figure represents a boostcompared to last year's 18 but is still lower than 2003's 23 competitors.

In all, theselectors screened 1540 features from 97 different countries before making theirselection.

Cannes regularssuch as Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, David Cronenberg, Michael Haneke, theDardenne brothers and Wim Wenders appear in the main selection. Other bignames, including Francois Ozon and Kim Ki-duk, will play their films in the UnCertain Regard sidebar.

A glance down thelist reveals a diverse mix of countries represented with US and French talentheading the pack. The three French films are: Michael Haneke's Hiddenstarring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu's PeindreOu Faire L'Amour again starring Auteuil and Dominik Moll's Lemming,the director's first film since With A Friend Like Harry appeared incompetition in 2000.

In all, four USfilms will screen in competition including actor Tommy Lee Jones' featuredirectorial debut The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. The filmstars Jones, Barry Pepper and Dwight Yokam and is produced by France's EuropaCorp.Other US films include Gus Van Sant's Last Days and Jim Jarmusch's BrokenFlowers. Van Sant won the Palme d'Or in 2003 for Elephant. Also onhand is Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City which features aguest directorial sequence by Quentin Tarantino, last year's jury president.

This year's juryis headed by Emir Kusturica but the festival has yet to announce the make up ofthe main or other sidebar judges. Cayla noted that putting together four jurieswas not the easiest of tasks but that the complete list of participants wouldbe made known next week.

Cannes regularsthe Dardenne brothers, from Belgium, come to Cannes for the third time with TheChild.

Following Dogville,Von Trier returns to the Croisette with Manderlay, this time starring BryceDallas Howard in for Nicole Kidman. Wim Wenders makes his eighth trip to Cannesthis year with Don't Come Knockin' starring Jessica Lange, SamShepard and Tim Roth in a work co-written by Shepard.

Other foreignfilms with US talent include Amos Gitai's Free Zone recently shot inIsrael and starring Nathalie Portman, Canadian director Atom Egoyan's WhereThe Truth Lies which boasts Kevin Bacon and Alison Lohman along withBritish actor Colin Firth, and also from Canada David Cronenberg's A HistoryOf Violence with Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris and William Hurt.

For the sixthtime, Hou Hsiao-Hsien brings a film to Cannes with The Best Of Our Times.Also from Asia are Japan's Masahiro Kobayashi on his first trip to Cannes with Bashing,China's Shanghai Dreams from Beijing Bicycle director WangXiaoshuai and Johnny To also makes a Cannes debut with Election.

Iraq is presentwith Hiner Saleem's Kilometre Zero. Saleem's Vodka Lemon playedon the festival circuit in 2003 and 2004.

Italy's Marco TullioGiordana's Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide moves him up from UnCertain Regard for the director's first competition berth while Mexico's CarlosReygadas, who competed for the Camera D'Or in 2002 will be on hand with BatallaEn El Cielo.

Special screeningsin the official selection but out of competition include: Woody Allen's first ever UK shot and financed film MatchPoint and Adam Curtis' acclaimed political documentary The Power Of Nightmares which first played on BBC television last year. Other out of competition screenings are CrossingThe Bridge by Berlinale winner Fatih Akin, Shane Black's Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, AviMograbi's Pour Un Seul De Mes Deux Yeux, Rithy Panh's Les Artistes DuTheatre Brule, Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon, Kim Jee-woon's ABittersweet Life, Christian Carion's Merry Christmas, MichelPiccoli's C'est Pas Tout A Fait La Vie Don't J'Avais Reve and BertrandBonello's short film Cindy .

Full competition line-up:
Lemming - Dominik Moll (Opening Film) (Fr)
Sin City - Roberto Rodriguez and Frank Miller (US)
Last Days - Gus Van Sant (US)
Manderlay - Lars von Trier (Denmark)
Where The Truth Lies - Atom Egoyan (Canada)
Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide - Marco Tullio Giordana (Italy)
Hidden - Michael Haneke (France)
A History Of Violence - David Cronenberg (Canada)
The Best Of Our Times - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan)
Election - Johnny To (China)
Broken Flowers - Jim Jarmusch (US)
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada - Tommy Lee Jones (US)
Bashing - Kobayashi Masahiro (Japan)
Batalla En El Cielo - Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
Kilometre Zero - Hiner Saleem (Iraq)
Shanghai Dreams - Wang Xiaoshuai (China)
Peindre Or Faire L'Amour - Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu (France)
The Child - The Dardenne Brothers (Belgium)
Don't Come Knockin' - Wim Wenders (Germany)
Free Zone - Amos Gitai (Israel)

Out of competition:
Chromophobia - Martha Fiennes (closing film) (UK)
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith - George Lucas (US)
Matchpoint - Woody Allen (US)
Merry Christmas - Christian Carion (Fr)

Midnight Screenings, Out Of Competition
Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang - Shane Black (US)
A Bitter Sweet Life - Kim Jee-woon (South Korea)
Midnight Movies From The Margin To The Mainstream - Stuart Samuels
Land Of The Dead (20min reel), George Romero (US)

Special Screenings, Out Of Competition
C'est Pas Tout A Fait La Vie Don't J'Avais Reve - Michel Piccoli (France)
Crossing The Bridge - Fatih Akin (Germany)
The Power Of Nightmares - Adam Curtis (UK)
Pour Un Seul De Mes Deux Yeux - Avi Mograbi (Israel)
Les Artistes Du Theatre Brule - Rithy Panh (Cambodia)
Princess Raccoon - Seijun Suzuki (Japan)
Cindy (short) - Bertrand Bonello