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Red Carpet

DW staff (kjb)April 23, 2008

German director Wim Wenders has made the short list at the 61st Cannes Film Festival with his newest film, "The Palermo Shooting." He'll compete against 18 other directors for the coveted Palme d'Or.

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Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders is a familiar face in CannesImage: AP

Just three weeks before the red carpet is rolled out for the 61st time in southern France, Cannes festival directors on Wednesday, April 23, announced the 19 contestants for this year's festival.

Wenders has shown 15 films at Cannes over the course of his career and taken home five awards, including a Palme d'Or for "Paris Texas" in 1984. He was the last German director to be awarded the top prize at Cannes.

Poster for the 61st Cannes Film Festival
The festival runs from May 14-25Image: picture-alliance/ dpa

Last year's Palme d'Or went to Romanian director Cristian Mungiu for "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." German director Fatih Akin went home with a Best Screenplay Award for "The Edge of Heaven."

This year, Wenders will face-off once against with Hollywood directors Clint Eastwood ("The Changeling" with Angelina Jolie) and Steven Soderbergh ("Guerrilla," based on the life of Che Guevara), as well as a string of other directors from Belgium, Turkey, France, Argentina, Brazil and Italy.

Wenders' "The Palermo Shooting" stars Campino, in real life a singer in the successful German band "Die Toten Hosen," as a photographer who goes to Palermo, Italy, looking for a change.

Steven Spielberg, participating out of competition, will show "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the fourth installment in an adventure series starring Harrison Ford that began in 1981.