14 Films Buzzing at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival opens today with the premiere of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Despite that high-profile event, the festival lineup offers fewer household names this year, the AP reports. Only one US film is in the running for the top prize: Doug Liman’s Fair Game, based on Valerie Plame’s CIA identity leak. The Daily Beast runs down the 14 most buzzed-about films of the festival:

• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful: Starring Javier Bardem, this Spanish-language thriller about a criminal who runs into a childhood friend-turned-cop is already generating Oscar buzz.

• Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job: Chosen for a special screening at Cannes, this Matt Damon-narrated documentary focuses on the global financial meltdown.
• Gregg Araki’s Kaboom: The sci-fi thriller/murder mystery has been called a “hyper-stylized Twin Peaks for the Coachella generation.”
• Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: This highly anticipated sequel starring Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf has been pushed back multiple times.
• Hideo Nakata’s Chatroom: A cyberthriller from Nakata, who was behind the original Japanese version of The Ring.

For the complete list, click here. (More Cannes Film Festival stories.)