Fernando Mereilles's "Blindness" will in fact open the 2008 Festival de Cannes on May 14th -- screening in competition -- organizers have just announced. Rounding out the Official Selection for the upcoming event, planners added a few additional films to the roster.

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Cinema poster artist Pierre Collier has created the poster and visual identity for the 61st Festival de Cannes, inspired by a photograph by David Lynch. The festival will run May 14th through 25th.

Nine famous faces, photographed at last year's Festival de Cannes, are pictured in the poster for the upcoming French fest. During the 59th festival, Magnum photographer Alex Majoli shot numerous notables in mid jump for the poster celebrating the 60th Festival de Cannes and graphic designer Christophe Renard created the composite image.

Pictured above, in the "tribute to those actors and directors at the heart of this Anniversary Festival," are: Pedro Almodovar, Juliette Binoche, Jane Campion, Souleymane Cisse, Penelope Cruz, Gerard Depardieu, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Wong Kar Wai.

The lineup for the 60th Festival de Cannes will be announced on Thursday, April 19th.

Image provided by Festival de Cannes

Cannes organizers will again present the Cinéma de la Plage on the beach near the Palais des Festivals. The venue is a welcome addition with a large drive-in movie screen and comfortable beach chairs. In addition to a screening of the original "Stars Wars, Episode IV - A New Hope", on Saturday night after midnight DJ Jeff Mills will offer what is being billed as an exclusive set created for the festival. Film music will be showcased before each nightly Cinéma de la Plage showing. And as always, as the well-dressed make their way up the red carpeted stairs of the Palais nightly, the duo Radio Mentale, Jean-Yves Leloup and Eric Pajot, will provide nightly tunes.

Filmmaker Michael Winterbottom has been tapped as the guest of honor at the Cannes Film Festival's "Europe Day", on Tuesday May 17th. The festival annnounced today that Winterbottom will participate in a debate on the topic, "European films in the Information Society," along with a number of European Ministers of Culture. After the discussions, Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner of Information, and the Ministers of Culture of the European Union, will talk with the media about the discussions. Winterbottom was a member of the Cannes jury in 1998.