Tough choice for jury as Cannes curtain comes down

The Cannes film festival jury led by Robert De Niro faces a tough choice on Sunday as it picks the winner of the Palme d'Or top prize, with movies from Finland, Spain, the United States and France all in the frame. Guessing the winner of the world's biggest cinema showcase, overshadowed this year by the shock exit of Danish director Lars Von Trier for joking that he was a Nazi, is notoriously tricky. The race in 2011 is seen as unusually open-ended, however, with US maverick Terrence Malick a slight favourite for his metaphysical epic The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt. Also heavily favoured by Cannes' notoriously picky critics are Finnish film maker Aki Kaurismaki's comedy Le Havre, silent, black-and-white romance The Artist from France and Spaniard Pedro Almodovar's thriller The Skin I Live In. A further five movies won passionate, though not unanimous support, underlining how this year's selection has upped the ante after some disappointing competitions in recent years. "My choice for Palme d'Or would be Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre, with Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In and the Dardenne brothers' Kid With A Bike runners-up," said Mike Goodridge, editor of movie publication Screen. "My betting is that a Robert De Niro-led jury will go for The Tree Of Life," he added. In addition to the films, the A-listers came out in force, the parties were loud and lavish and the giant market saw bustling trade in signs that the financial crisis that dampened recent festivals was finally fading from view. Shock exit for Hitler remarks The movies were reduced to a sideshow on Wednesday, when Von Trier joked at a news conference about being a Nazi and Hitler sympathiser in an outburst which prompted the festival to take the unprecedented step of throwing him out the following day. Von Trier said the decision came as a shock and reiterated that he was sorry if he had caused offence. He added, however, that his ignominious exit from a festival where he won the Palme d'Or in 2000 could enhance his credentials as a rebel. His competition movie Melancholia, starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters facing annihilation in a cosmic collision, remained in competition, meaning that, in theory at least, it could win prizes including the Golden Palm.