The official list of films for the Cannes Film Festival has been announced and we finally have some titles to get truly excited about. That’s no shade on Sundance, which has launched such marvelous films as The Station Agent, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Spectacular Now, The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, Junebug, and Precious. That said, the Cannes Film Festival is the true start of the film year. Cannes, which takes place every May, is the yearly debutante ball for established directorial talents, the first chance to see (or at least hear about, for those of us who can’t afford airfare to France) some of the year’s most anticipated films. And sure enough, ten of the titles featured in Carnivorous Couch’s Most Anticipated Films of 2014 list will play at the festival.

Those would be Grace of Monaco; Clouds of Sil Maria; Winter Sleep; Maps to the Stars; Two Days, One Night; The Search; Foxcatcher; How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Rover; and my most anticipated film of the year, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner. Notably absent is Terence Malick, whose Tree of Life won the festival a few years ago. We will likely have to wait until Fall to get a look at his Christian Bale-starring Knight of Cups.

It’s also interesting to note that Wim Wenders will be showing a film at the festival, but not Every Thing Will Be Fine, the James Franco-starring film that made our anticipated list. Instead, he will be showing Salt of the Earth, a documentary about the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Make of this what you will. It could be a sign of which film is stronger, or it could just mean that Wenders is still tinkering with Every Thing. Until we know more, it’s enough to reiterate that, since the 1990’s, Wenders has had much greater success as a documentarian than as a fictional storyteller.

There’s no telling how all these titles will shake out, but one thing is all but certain. At least a few of the films on this list will be the titles the cinematic world buzzes about through the hot summer months until we reach the cool of autumn, when the Toronto, Telluride, and Venice festivals will provide us with a larger list of awards contenders. As always, I am excited to see how the ten films from our anticipated list fare at the festival. Perhaps more than that, I’m always thrilled by the prospect of being surprised by a great piece of work that I didn’t see coming. To that end, keep an eye out for Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home, Atom Egoyan’s Captives, Ryan Gosling’s Lost River. and Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall. Here is the full list of films, both in and out of competition.