Cannes Film Festival 2017: Everything you need to know about the prestigious film fest

The Cannes Film Festival — one of the world's prestigious film festivals kicked off today celebrating its 70th anniversary. The festival will be held from May 17 to 28.

Also read: 70th Cannes Film Festival: 5 highest-grossing films that have won Palme d'Or

Stars like Julianne Moore, Jessica Chastain, Bella Hadid, Jake Gyllenhaal and Deepika Padukone have already been spotted at the French Riviera. As all the cinephiles, directors, celebs around the world will be paying close attention to the winner of the coveted Palme d'Or prize, now it's time to take a look at some facts that you should know about the festival.

Opening film

The 70^th Cannes Film Festival will open with Ismael's Ghost, directed by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marion Cotillard. The film was selected to be screened out of competition.

Palme d'Or competitors

There are 12 female-directed films this year, amongst which three are taking part in the competition for the Palme D'Or. Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, which stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell deserve to be mentioned. Here's the following line-up:

Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes

Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius

Geu-Hu (The Day After), Hong Sangsoo

Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos

A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa

Jupiter's Moon, Kornél Mundruczó

L'amant Double, François Ozon

You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay

Good Time, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie

Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev

The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach

Ismael's Ghosts, Arnaud Desplechin

In the Fade, Fatih Akin

Okja, Bong Joon-Ho

120 Battements Par Minute, Robin Campillo

The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola

Rodin, Jacques Doillon

Happy End, Michael Haneke

Cannes jury members

President of the Jury for the festival, director Pedro Almodovar, will be joined by the likes of Jessica Chastain (The Zookeeper's Wife), Will Smith (I Am Legend), Fan Bingbing (Chinese actress), Paolo Sorrentino (The Young Pope), Park Chan-wook (Stoker), Agnès Jaoui (French actress), Maren Ade (German writer-director) and Gabriel Yared (The English Patient composer).

Other significant categories including Un Certain Regard and short and student films are headed by Kill bill actress Uma Thurman and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.

TV Series at Cannes

Yes, the film fest authority has decided to include two TV series as part of its official schedule — For the first time in its seven-decade history, Cannes will include two TV series - the second installment of Jane Campion's Top of the Lake (featuring Nicole Kidman and Elisabeth Moss) and the much-anticipated Twin Peaks.

Some films to look out for

The Beguiled [Cast: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell]

The Killing of a Sacred Deer [Cast: Nicole Kidman and Farrell]

Wonderstruck ]Cast: Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams]

Okja [Cast: Tilda Swinton and Lily Collins]

You Were Never Really Here [Cast: Joaquin Phoenix]

Also, Twilight actress Kristen Stewart will also make her directorial debut with short film, Come Swim.

This is indeed Nicole Kidman's year

As mentioned earlier, Nicole Kidman starring The Beguiled is competing for the prestigious Palme D'Or, which is a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 movie of the same name. Apart from that, three other projects including a TV series will be screened at Cannes.

Cannes- Netflix feud

The American streaming giant got involved in some controversy with the film fest organisers as Netflix refused to stream their films on the big screen and limiting it only to their subscribers. The festival authorities have decided to ban Netflix original movies from next year in order to protect the future of cinema.

However, the 2017 schedule is featuring for two Netflix-original films— Boong Joon-Ho's Okja (starring Tilda Swinton and Lily Collins), and Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories.