Four-time Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood is a four-time Palme d'Or loser, having been here previously with "Pale Rider" (1985), "Bird" (1988), "White Hunter, Black Heart" (1990) and "Mystic River" (2003), but he's hoping the fifth time is a charm with his latest competition entry, "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie, who was here last year herself for "A Mighty Heart" (which failed to go on to Oscar glory).

Might the fact that Eastwood's "Mystic River" star Sean Penn is president of this year's jury be a good omen of French things to come for Clint? After all, he did direct Sean to an Oscar.

Is it time to return the favor?

There's also lots of buzz about past Palme d'Or winner Soderbergh's ("Sex, Lies and Videotape") "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla," a pair of films being shown here as "Che," one 4-hour, 28-minute epic on Che Guevarra.

A big reception and/or win here could set up major Oscar hopes for the so far distributor-less film(s) starring Benecio Del Toro. But right now Soderbergh is just struggling to get it into shape to even make its Cannes debut on the 21st.

Out-of-competition Oscar hopefuls include Woody Allen's Spain-set "Vicky Christina Barcelona," with newly minted Oscar winner Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johannson.

There's also the animated film contender "Kung Fu Panda," a stunning and reverent martial arts 'toon from DreamWorks showing this Thursday, and of course, Steven Spielberg's return May 18 for the world premiere of "Indiana Jones" (likely an Oscar contender in tech categories), his first trip to Cannes since 1986 when he showed "The Color Purple" out of competition.

Spielberg, incidentally, is a former Cannes winner, having shared the best screenplay prize (with Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins) for "The Sugarland Express," his first feature film in 1974.

We'll be blogging our views on what's going on this year -- the hits, the misses, the bombs, the underdogs and the whole Cannes scene -- on latimes.com/cannes.

For the next 12 days Cannes becomes an unrivaled orgy of film and partying 24/7 that will be blasted around the world.

So here's a message to those monks across the bay: Time to get some earplugs!