Cannes 2009 - Cannes is nearly Up and away

This year's Cannes festival boasts an impressive mix of the mainstream and the art-house.

This year's Cannes festival runs from May 13-24 and it kicks off with a festival first - a 3-D film. The Disney-Pixar animated comedy Up opens the festival and it tells the story of a 78 year old salesman and a boy scout embarking on an adventure on a flying house tied together by balloons.

One of Cannes' famous sons Quentin Tarantino will make his comeback with his WWII men-on-a-mission action epic Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt. The director won the Golden Palm in 1994 with Pulp Fiction.

Inglourious Basterds is once again produced by Harvey and Bob Weinstein - this time though under the umbrella of The Weinstein Co rather than Miramax. Harvey said, "Cannes is a world stage, and if you're going to do something big and full of risk, you might as well go on the trapeze without a net. And there's no better place than the world's biggest circus for movies."

Other famous directors making a re-appearance at the festival that has served them so well include The Piano's Jane Campion. She returns for the first time since 2003's In The Cut, with a biopic of British poet John Keats in Bright Star.

Pedro Almodovar will screen his Spanish comedy Broken Embraces, which once again stars his muse Penelope Cruz. Almodovar won the screenplay prize in 2006 for Volver, while he also picked up best director for 1999's All About My Mother. Ken Loach aims to make former footballer Eric Cantona a movie star in Looking For Eric - a charming tale of a down on his luck postman and his imaginary life coach played by Cantona - while Ang Lee returns with 60s comedy Taking Woodstock.

Lee has had mixed success with Cannes. While Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a hit, Brokeback Mountain never made the cut for the festival five years ago. He says, "In some ways it's a little bit cutthroat. Every year is different. It takes a little bit of luck. But if you have a good screening, there's nothing like that."

It's going to be a tough year for the judges it seems.

- More on Yahoo! Movies: Inglourious Basterds trailer