Brits Abroad

After being ignored outright at last year's festival, Britain will be launching a full-blown offensive on Cannes next month with no less than three films contending for the coveted grand prize. Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, Mike Leigh's anticipated urban drama All or Nothing and Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen were announced today as the British vanguard in a 22-strong line-up competiting in this year's festival. Also revving on the start-line with some serious horsepower under the hood are David Cronenberg's Ralph Fiennes thriller Spiderand Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia follow-up, Punch Drunk Love. The full list of films in competition: Punch-Drunk Love - Paul Thomas Anderson, United States Bowling for Columbine - Michael Moore, United States About Schmidt - Alexander Payne, United States Demonlover - Olivier Assayas, France Irreversible - Gaspar Noe, France L'adversaire - Nicole Garcia, France Marie-Jo et ses deux amours - Robert Guediguian, France L'Ora di Religione (Il Sorriso di mia Madre) - Marco Bellochio, Italy Spider - David Cronenberg, Canada Le Fils - Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium Kedma - Amos Gitai, Israel Chihwaseon - Im Kwon-taek, South Korea Ren Xiao Yao (Unknown Pleasures) - Jia Zhang Ke, China Mies Vailla Menneisyytta (The Man Without a Past) - Aki Kaurismaki, Finland 10, Abbas Kiarostami - Iran All or Nothing - Mike Leigh, Britain Sweet Sixteen - Ken Loach, Britain 24-Hour Party People - Michael Winterbottom, Britain O Principio da Incerteza - Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal The Pianist - Roman Polanski, France Russian Ark - Alexandre Sokurov, Russia Intervention Divine - Elia Suleiman, Palestinian Also showing but not in competition: Hollywood Ending - Woody Allen, United States (opening film) And now, Ladies and Gentlemen - Claude Lelouch, France (closing film) Spirit, Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook - United States Devdas, Sanjay Leela Bhansali - India Ararat, Atom Egoyan - Canada Cidado de Deus, Fernando Meirelles - Brazil Murder by Numbers, Barbet Schroeder - France The 2002 Cannes Film festival kicks off on 15 May.