Twenty-three features were chosen from amongst the more than 680 films submitted, with an additional 10 films screening out of competition and a special screening of Otar Iosseliani's Avril (1962). Included in the out of competition selection is the opening film, Vatel by Roland Joffe, and the closing film, Stardom by Denys Arcand.

The festival organizers pointed out that it is becoming more and more difficult to identify the film's country of origin because of the increasing number of co-productions, but by classic standards, Europe counts 8 films (four of which are from France), one from Russia, Asia has six in competition from four different countries with Korea presenting a competition film for the first time ever, the Middle East has two, the US has five and Brazil one.

Several familiar names lead the pack: Joel Coen, Ken Loach, Lars Van Trier, Neil Labute, Wong Kar-wai, James Ivory. And the many stars expected will keep the fans craning their necks for peeks: George Clooney, Uma Thurman, Juliette Binoche, Gerard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Penelope Cruz, Tim Robbins, Kim Basinger, John Turturro…

The members of the jury are dominated by actresses - Nicole Garcia (France), Kristin Scott Thomas (UK), Aitana Sanchez-Gijon (Spain), Barbara Sukowa (Germany), as opposed to only one actor - Jeremy Irons (UK), two writers - Arundhati Roy (India) and Patrick Modiano (France), and three directors - jury president Luc Besson, Jonathan Demme (US), and Mario Martone (Italy).