Image: courtesy of Focus Features

THERE IS A FLEETING period between late winter and early spring when self-respecting cinephiles can feel pretty pleased with themselves. They have watched all of the past award season’s frontrunners, checked out the smaller international fare on Mubi, and come up with a few hot takes (The Brutalist was too short! There weren’t enough songs in A Complete Unknown!). And then, just as you get outside to enjoy the warming air – maybe with a martini? – Cannes kicks off.

The annual film festival starts next week, running from 13 to 24 May, and bringing with it new films, premiering in and out of competition. There are some familiar directors and actors, a few welcome returns, and some outsiders that will very likely come to dominate the year in film. Here’s our guide to some of the most exciting titles.

Emma Stone! Jennifer Lawrence! Austin Butler!

There are 22 films premiering in competition at this year’s festival, though we are particularly excited about Lynne Ramsay’s new feature Die, My Love about a woman on the verge of a breakdown, which stars Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Lawrence and Lakeith Stanfield. Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here won best screenplay at the 2017 festival and the talent involved in Die, My Love (admittedly, not the cheeriest name) is undeniable. Lawrence is also credited as a producer.

Horror provocateur Ari Aster returns, after the success of Hereditary and Midsommar, with a new take on a western. This one stars Joaquin Phoenix (likely hoping for a post-The Joker: Folie à Deux critical bump), Emma Stone (yay), Pedro Pascal (him again!) and Austin Butler (always happy to see).

We have our eye on two other American entries: Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, which is accompanied by a typically A-list line-up including Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera. And New Wave, from Richard Linklater, about the making of Jean Luc Godard’s Sixties classic Breathless (or À bout de souffle, for everyone who took a French A-Level). Zoey Deutch is playing Jean Seberg while Guillaume Marbeck plays Godard.

Meanwhile Resurrection, from Chinese director Bi Gan, looks like it could fulfil some high-end sci-fi needs. From Titane and Palme D’Or-winning director Julia Ducournau comes Alpha: a body horror with Emma Mackey, which might interest fans of last year’s The Substance.

Josh O’Connor is on double duty

Photography: Simon Emmett/Aflo

It will be hard to ignore Oliver Hermanus’s The History of Sound, a gay love story featuring two of the internet’s boyfriends Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. It’s set during World War I, and follows two men who record folk songs in New England.

O’Connor also stars in The Mastermind, an intriguing-sounding Vietnam war/art heist movie from Kelly Reichardt (First Cow). Thanks to some great project choices (check out La Chimera from last year), The Crown actor has become one of our most most enjoyable leading men.

And the rest . . .

Look out for releases in the “Un Certain Regard” category, which champions unusual storytelling techniques. Kristen Stewart makes her directorial debut with The Chronology of Water, a memoir adaptation about a woman who finds herself through swimming, as does Scarlett Johansson with Eleanor the Great, a tale about intergenerational friendship with June Squibb.

Some fun out-of-competition picks include Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest starring Denzel Washington, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning starring… you know who, and murder mystery A Private Life from French director Rebecca Zlotowski. Happy viewing.

This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.

Related:

Is ‘The Smashing Machine’ The Rock’s bid for an Oscar?

Our first look at Austin Butler’s new film ‘Caught Stealing’ is here, and it’s hot