Francis Ford Coppola will be making his way to Cannes this year with his black-and-white drama “Tetro” after all. Although the director said last week that he turned down an invitation to walk the red carpet at the Festival de Cannes, his film is set to open the 41st annual Directors’ Fortnight, the less-glitzy sidebar to the main event, organizers said.

Spike Lee is in Cannes to promote his Italy-set war film “Miracle at St. Anna,” but he couldn’t resist taking a few swipes at some fellow directors, including Joel and Ethan Coen and Clint Eastwood. Speaking about death in his World War II period drama, Lee said that, unlike the Coens, he was respectful in the way he portrayed death.

Today Cannes gets its first look at the most talked-about property for sale here: Steven Soderbergh’s two-film, Spanish-language biography of Che Guevara, consisting of “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla.” Some studios and specialty labels, including Soderbergh’s former home base at Warner Bros., passed on financing the two pics, but buyers are hovering.

The myriad makeshift signs people waved outside the Palais Sunday said it all: “Me, Indi Jones tickets, please” as hundreds of fans and moviegoers started amassing in hopes of securing passage to the world premiere of the fourth installment of the Steven Spielberg franchise. And if not to the movie, then at least a glimpse of Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf and practically the entire (human) cast as they made their way to the chock-a-block press conference after the screening.

The world’s biggest film festival kicks off in Cannes today, bringing Hollywood A-listers, obscure art-house directors, international media and fans together for 12 party-packed days on the French Riviera. Posters are up around the resort town in southern France, marquees line the seafront, yachts are gleaming despite unseasonal drizzle and hotels await their famous guests. It only remains for the red carpet to be rolled out.

As U.S. filmmakers, buyers and sellers head for Cannes, they are tamping down expectations. And it’s not just because the economy is tilting steadily toward recession.

The May 8 shuttering of Picturehouse and Warner Independent cast a pall over the specialty business just as buyers and sellers were boarding planes to France.

The move follows another serious [...]

Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” will compete next month at this year’s streamlined Cannes Film Festival, as will Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” “Adoration,” starring Toronto actors Scott Speedman and Rachel Blanchard, is Egoyan’s first feature length film since “Where The Truth Lies,” which also screened at Cannes. Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh will headline the competition this year at the pared down version of Cannes, which features fewer big-name directors and more emerging voices from across the globe.

Ten short films from France, Great Britain, Argentina, the United States and Canada have been chosen as finalists in the NFB Online Short Film Competition Cannes Special 2007. The finalists were selected from among 1149 films registered with the Short Film Corner, the meeting place for short films at Cannes.