The official line up of the Cannes film festival, announced an hour ago, contains perhaps the list of the best directors alive today, and whose works I’m aching to see. Here’s the complete list. Analysis below:

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

OPENER
“Up,” U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

CLOSER
“Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky,” France, Jan Kounen

IN COMPETITION
“Bright Star,” Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
“Spring Fever,” China-France, Lou Ye
“Antichrist,” Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
“Enter the Void,” France, Gaspar Noe
“Face,” France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
“Les Herbes folles,” France-Italy, Alain Resnais
“In the Beginning,” France, Xavier Giannoli
“A Prophet,” France, Jacques Audiard
“The White Ribbon,” Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
“Vengeance,” Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
“The Time That Remains,” Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
“Vincere,” Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
“Kinatay,” Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
“Thirst,” South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
“Broken Embraces,” Spain, Pedro Almodovar
“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Spain, Isabel Coixet
“Fish Tank,” U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
“Looking for Eric,” U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
“Inglourious Basterds,” U.S., Quentin Tarantino
“Taking Woodstock,” U.S., Ang Lee

OUT OF COMPETITION
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Canada-France, Terry Gilliam
“The Army of Crime,” France, Robert Guediguian
“Agora,” Spain, Alejandro Amenabar

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“A Town Called Panic,” Belgium, Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar
“Ne te retourne pas,” France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy, Marina de Van
“Drag Me to Hell,” U.S., Sam Raimi

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
“Petition,” China, Zhao Liang
“L’epine dans le coeur,” France, Michel Gondry
“Min ye,” France-Mali, Souleyumane Cisse
“Jaffa,” Israel-France-Germany, Keren Yedaya
“Manila,” Philippines, Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin
“My Neighbor, My Killer,” U.S., Anne Aghion

Is it me, or on the basis of the names alone this could be the most violent and bloodiest Cannes festival ever? Park Chan-Wook, Tarantino, Raimi, Haneke, Noe, Mendoza and Campion together? There will Be Blood!

First off: a rather poor showing for Israeli films. Only one sort-of Israeli co-production in competition: Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains. I loved Sulieman’s two previous features, the magnificent “Chronicle of a Disappearance” and the more blunt “Divine Intervention”, and although I’m looking forward to seeing his latest effort, It’ll be hard for me to tag his film “Israeli”‘ as Sulieman himself tries to distance himself from this country: as a Gallilee born Israeli-Citizen-Christian-Arab he prefers to be identified as a Palestinian and live and work abroad. Frankly, I don’t care, as long as he continues making great angry movies.
The second is the out-of-competition screening of “Jaffa”, the second feature by Keren Yedaya, whose previous effort, “Or”, won Cannes’ Camera D’or.
And in the Spanish “Agora”, set in ancient Egypt, several Israeli actors are featured.

But, the rest of the crop is truly mouth watering. The Cannes line-up features some of my favorite living directors: Jane Campion, Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noe, Tsai Ming-liang, Jacques Audiard, Park Chan-wook, Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Sam Raimi, Terry Gilliam, Alejandro Amenabar.

And I definitely appreciate - on a film-by-film basis, also: Alain Resnais, Michael Haneke, Robert Guediguian, Johnnie To, Isabel Coixet, Marco Bellocchio, Ken Loach.

Great names. I hope their movies don’t suck.