Arriving in Cannes jetlagged on a cloudless summer morning (the Mediterranean summer’s already here) I was greeted by a cultural shock of sorts – the hundreds of festival staff, hosts, security, building contractors, are all extremely friendly, helpful, polite and funny – the antithesis of Paris. The Parisian crowd stands out a mile away from the tanned, Southerly pétanque-playing locals. Nevertheless, the overwhelming atmosphere is one of hospitality, warmth and good looks galore.

The first impression of this year’s line-up is the wide range of countries -from Japan to Romania and Ethiopia, from Iran to Croatia – represented by fairly little known filmmakers. While France is the outright leader in terms of the overall number of films screening and there are some big American names well accustomed to Cannes (Woody Allen, Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes), the greatest buzz so far seems to be around the Italian trio (Cannes veteran Nanni...