The Cannes Film Festival has announced its official selection with 17 films up for the top prize the Palme D'Or.

The festival is one of the biggest events in the movie industry and one that also kicks off awards season. Every year, a number of Cannes competition films become major awards players depending on how they are received and obtain huge distribution deals. For example, last year, 10 out of the 18 competition films obtained huge awards pushes.

Films like "Foxcatcher," "Mr. Turner," "Wild Tales," "Two Days One Night," "Leviathan" and "Timbuktu" all received Oscar nominations. Meanwhile, Palme D'Or winner "Winter Sleep," "Mommy," "Maps to the Stars" and "Saint Laurent," either represented their country or were campaigned for specific awards.

However, this is not always the case as certain years' Cannes slates have very little impact on the Oscar race. In 2013, only three of the films actually obtained Oscar nominations. These included "Nebraska," "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "The Great Beauty." "Borgman," "Heli," and "The Past," went on to represent their respective countries while Palme D'Or winner "Blue is the Warmest Color" had a huge awards campaign for its actresses since France did not select it. "The Immigrant" was released in 2014 and therefore qualified for 2014 awards and won some major prizes.

This year, there are a number of Oscar contenders that made the competition slate. Two of the most anticipated on the list are "Macbeth" and "Carol." Both films are being distributed by the Weinstein Company and they have obtained a lot of buzz for a number of months. "Macbeth" actually showed a preview at the Weinstein Company's annual press conference last year.

Gus Van Sant's latest film "The Sea of Trees" starring Matthew McConaughey will also make its world premiere after having been sold in the festival market last year while Denis Villeneuve returns to Cannes after a number of years with his new film "Sicario," starring Emily Blunt. Both directors have been notable awards draws as Van Sant has been nominated for his work on "Milk" and "Good Will Hunting" while Villeneuve had a big breakout for his work on "Incendies" and his recent Oscar nominated "Prisoners."

Jaques Audiard returns to the competition slate with his new film "Dheephan." The director has been in competition before with "A Prophet" and "Rust and Bone"; and this film has been getting buzz ever since IFC Films picked it up for US distribution.

Matteo Garrone returns after winning two Jury Prizes for his films "Gommorah" and "Reality." This time, he has "The Tale of Tales," his first English film and one that stars Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and John C. Reilly.

Also returning is Paolo Sorrentino with "Youth." The director has screened a number of films at the festival including the Oscar winning "The Great Beauty" and "Il Divo."

Valerie Donzelli also returns to Cannes with film "Marguerite and Julien" after her outstanding movie "Declaration of War," which ended up representing France at the Academy Awards a few years ago and which opened the critics week sidebar in Cannes.

"Dogtooth" director Yorgos Lanthimos brings his first English language effort "The Lobster" while Maiwenn will bring her latest "Mon Roi" after winning the jury prize for her film "Polisse."

The Asian community will represented in competition with three films, Jua Zhang-Ke's "Mountain May Depart," Hou Hsiao Hsien's "The Assassin" and Kore-Eda Hirokazu's "Our Little Sister."

The lineup is rounded out by Joachim Trier's "Louder than Bombs," Nana Moretti's "Mia Madre" and Stepahne Brize.

The competition slate definitely boasts number of A-List directors and also looks promising in terms of awards. In particular, France has a number of films that could easily come out of the festival to represent the country at the Oscars as well as Italy. Asia also has films that could represent at the Oscars.

However, this year lacks a Latin film or an African film.

The festival also announced it's out of competition slate and that includes Pixar's "Inside Out" and Woody Allen's "The Irrational Man." This bodes well for these two films in terms of reviews and awards chances. The last time Pixar presented a film at Cannes was in 2009 with Pete Doctor's "Up." Allen also reserves his best works for Cannes. For example, he showed "Midnight in Paris" at the Croisette before it headed on to become an Oscar winner.

The animated film "The Little Prince" will also be shown and that is likely to make huge waves as an Oscar contender.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux said there would be more films announced in the next days and perhaps that will see another competition film added.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13 to 24 and will open with "La Tete Haute."

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