The 68th Cannes Film Festival – the world’s biggest, oldest festival – kicks off this week. The world’s media and cinema professional descend on the South of France for a fortnight – it is a place where deals are brokered, films bought and sold, and the population of the Mediterranean resort triples in size (along with the prices!).

Quite apart from the red carpet and parties, it’s a serious showcase of some of the most anticipated films of the year – and 2015 sees a ‘defiantly European’ slate of films in competition.

One of the hottest tickets is Todd Hayne’s Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950s-set lesbian romance The Price of Salt starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos makes his English-language debut with The Lobster, where single people are forced to find a mate in 45 days – or risk being turned into animals. Then there’s French enfant terrible Gaspar Noe’s 3D pornographic odyssey Love, while Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard do Macbeth.

Elsewhere in the Director’s Fortnight and Critics Week strands there are many discoveries to be made – last year included the excellent It Follows, Girlhood and The Tribe, the latter of which is just about to hit screens here in the UK.

Mark Cosgrove, our Cinema Curator and Madeleine Probst, our Cinema Programme Producer and Vice-President of Europa Cinemas, will be in Cannes for the next couple of weeks reporting back live on Twitter as they make their way through the myriad screenings, industry events, meetings and the occasionally reception.

So to get the very latest from the Croisette check out all their Tweets below or follow #shedcff on Twitter. Got a question or comment for them? Drop them a line at @msc45 or @MaddyProbst and they’ll get back to you between screenings...

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