Directors Martin Scorsese and Abbas Kiarostami have agreed to be honorary presidents of the Cannes Festival's Cinefondation. As such they will preside over the twice yearly "Residence" internship, which helps young film-makers prepare for their first or second feature film.

The festival said: "they wished to show their attachment to the initiative taken by the festival in 1998 to open the Cannes selection to young filmmakers and to reward their best films each year."

The latest crop of internees, who will spend four and a half months in Paris, are:

Ewa Banaszkiewicz, 29, Poland/UK
Edgar Bartenev, 34, Russia
Anastas Charalampidis, 27, Greece
Marc Hartmann, 26, Germany
Diego Lerman, 26, Argentina
John Shank, 25, US.

They were selected from 112 applicants by a jury headed by Belgian director, Andre Delvaux The next Residence course begins from 1 October.

The Residence programme is already beginning to show results. Previous alumni have included Peter Sollett and Djamshed Usmonov, whose Long Way Home and The Angel On The Right ( L'ange De L'Epaule Droite) respectively featured in the Un Certain regard section of this year's festival.

Several films by other previous residents are now shooting or already finished.