SHOTLIST (including transcript):-

AP Entertainment

Cannes, France, 15th May 2012

1. Wide shot of The Palais

1. Mid shot of Festival de Cannes sign

2. Wide shot of the Pavilion

3. Wide shot of people walking

4. Close up of people walking

5. Close up the Carlton hotel

6. Pan down from "The Amazing Spider-Man" movie poster to "The Dictator" movie poster outside the Carlton hotel

7. Close up of Sacha Baron Cohen on "The Dictator" movie poster

8. Wide of the beach

9. Medium shot of man doing juggling tricks on the beach

10. Medium of Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Festival Director, talking to reporter

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Festival Director:

"To celebrate an anniversary is also an opportunity to make the atmosphere much more, much more happy, much more like in a family. We're all happy when there is something to celebrate and, and I think that we celebrate every year what cinema is, but saying that it's the 65th anniversary it's maybe a way not to celebrate Cannes but to celebrate what Cannes has done for, or what the film festivals in the world (have) done for. We are here to celebrate cinema, to support the filmmaker, the cinema d'auteur, to support the professionals who are working here. We are not only here in the sun with beautiful landscape we are all here to work and in a word, it's, it's to say that Cannes is here to prove that the cinema is alive."

12. Medium of Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Festival Director, talking to reporter

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Festival Director:

"Yeah, a lot of films made in America by people who come from America, three but, David Cronenberg is Canadian, Walter Salles is Brazilian, John Hillcoat and Andrew Dominik are Australian, so America is becoming again maybe a land of open dreams for the filmmakers in the world, but what is very interesting is that the recent American cinema was divided in two blocks. One was the small independent cinema celebrated in a festival like the Sundance Film Festival for example which emerged in the 80s with the video and so on, and on the other side the big blockbuster made by the studio in Hollywood - the summer movies and we have maybe now some kind of comeback of the filmmakers who are making films for the public for people from thirty to sixty years old. Of course we still have Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and Terrence Malick and so on but there is quite a young generation, like Jeff Nichols, who is in competition this year with "Mud." I think he's 35 or 36 and maybe they are the sons of Jerry Schatzberg or Bob Rafelson or Martin Scorsese all the filmmakers who were famous in the seventies."

14. Medium of Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Festival Director, talking to reporter

THE AMERICANS ARE COMING TO CANNES

Despite the mood in Europe, don't expect any austerity at the Cannes Film Festival, the annual Cote d'Azur extravaganza where glamor is wrapped in world cinema fervor and gauzy Mediterranean sunshine.

Except for the Oscars, it's the flashiest red carpet in the world, a ruby staircase flanked by tuxedoed photographers - and a world away from financial turmoil.

Yet Cannes, the 65th edition of which starts Wednesday (16th May 2012), fetes its directors as much as it does its stars.

This year, there are plenty of both: esteemed international filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Haneke to big-name talent like Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman.

Among the 22 films in competition, there's a particularly large American contingent which was selected, in-part, by Cannes' artistic director Thierry Fremaux.

"America is becoming again maybe a land of open dreams for filmmakers," says Fremaux.

"Of course we still have Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers and Terrence Malick and so on, but there is quite a young generation, like Jeff Nichols, who is in competition this year with 'Mud.' I think he's 35 or 36 and maybe they are the sons of Jerry Schatzberg or Bob Rafelson or Martin Scorsese all the filmmakers who were famous in the seventies."

The opening night film is Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" - the story about adolescent love on the run that brings a few new names (Bruce Willis, Ed Norton) into Anderson's carefully orchestrated world.

Later, there's David Cronenberg's Don DeLillo adaptation, "Cosmopolis," starring Robert Pattinson.

Brazilian director, Walter Salles' ("The Motorcycle Diaries") anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac's beloved "On the Road" is produced by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, but has attracted more attention for its supporting roles, including Pattinson's "Twilight" co-star Kristen Stewart as Dean Moriarty's girlfriend.

The unusually large U.S. group is rounded out by Jeff Nichols' "Mud," with Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon; and Lee Daniels' "Precious" follow up, "The Paperboy," a death row drama starring McConaughey, Zac Efron and Kidman.

There's also Australian director, John Hillcoat's "Lawless," a prohibition-era bootlegging tale starring Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, and New Zealander Andrew Dominick's "Killing Them Softly," a crime film starring Pitt as a mob enforcer.

The 65th addition of the Cannes Film Festival runs through until Sunday 27th May when the winner of the Palme d'Or - the festival's top prize -will be announced.

"To celebrate an anniversary is also an opportunity to make the atmosphere much more, much more happy, much more like in a family. We're all happy when there is something to celebrate and, and I think that we celebrate every year what cinema is, but saying that it's the 65th anniversary it's maybe a way not to celebrate Cannes but to celebrate what Cannes has done for, or what the film festivals in the world (have) done for. We are here to celebrate cinema, to support the filmmaker, the cinema d'auteur, to support the professionals who are working here. We are not only here in the sun with beautiful landscape we are all here to work and in a word, it's, it's to say that Cannes is here to prove that the cinema is alive," says Fremaux.