Cannes Palme d'Or line-up announced

Paris - Movies by US director Steven Soderbergh, Nicolas Winding Refn of Denmark and Italy's Paolo Sorrentino are among films vying for the coveted Palme d'Or at next month's Cannes Film Festival, organisers said on Thursday.

Soderbergh's eagerly-awaited Behind the Candelabra, with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, recounts the life of flamboyant pianist-entertainer Liberace, who masked his homosexuality from public view.

Another much-anticipated film is Refn's Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling in a gangland thriller set in Bangkok, while Sorrentino's The Great Beauty is about an ageing writer who recounts the twists and turns of his life.

Also making the cut is Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen brothers, starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake in a tale about a singer-songwriter in the 1960s folk scene in New York.

The festival, seen as the most prestigious event in cinema, runs on the Riviera from 15 to 26 May.