As for the three award potential Cannes entries that are without distribution deals in place as of this writing, James Gray's "Two Lovers," a throwback to romantic dramas like "Love With the Proper Stranger," "The Apartment" and "Marty," is said to be near one and if released in '08 could draw attention for first-rate performances from Gwyneth Paltrow and especially Joaquin Phoenix, his best since "Walk the Line."

Mixed reaction didn't help "Charlie Kaufman's seriously strange directorial debut, "Synechoche New York," but never count out the man who has won Oscar nominations for the equally audacious "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" and the Oscar itself for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." A strong lead performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman could draw awards attention as well if the film finds a home in time.

Then there's "Che." This way-overlong, undercooked Steven Soderbergh anti-epic has been discussed at length (and because of its length at 4.5 hours) but would seem to be a long shot academy-wise even if it is shown as two separate films as planned or in a cut-down version of the original shown Wednesday night at the Palais.

No distribution deal has been announced, although Harvey Weinstein seemed to be lobbying for it last week at his Amfar charity event, calling it "a masterpiece." Many others, however, were scratching their heads.

Benicio Del Toro was a unanimous jury pick for best actor, and his performance does fall in line with the current trend of rewarding performers for playing real-life personalities, but because of problems associated with the film he has to be deemed a long shot.

A better bet would be to sell the $60-plus-million movie to cable and go for the Emmys next year a la "Broken Trail."

One area Cannes really shed light on as the '08 awards season gets into gear for the fall festival kickoffs is the contest for best foreign-language film.

France's first Palme d'Or win in 21 years (and first popular one in more than 40) came for Laurent Cantet's down-to-the-wire entry shown on the last day, an extremely fine and accessible teacher-student drama, "Entre Les Murs" ("The Class") or, as we'll call it, "To Monsieur With Love." The prize would seem to cement the film as the country's entry for the Oscars over the most popular French film in history, "Beinvenue chez les Ch'tis," especially becayse Cannes honcho Thierry Fremaux sits on the selection committee.

Its Palme d'Or win probably shouldn't be too surprising. After days of watching murders, rapes, Filipino hardcore sex, war, torture, corruption, suicides and any number of minimalist movies with 20-minute shots of people cleaning restrooms or pigs being slowly slaughtered (it was a bad year to be a pig in Cannes), a film that raises hope about future generations was probably a shoo-in.

Meanwhile, the No. 2 and 3 films, Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra" and Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo," set up a battle royal for the Italian selection committee, with the former, a Mafia story, probably having the edge over the more politically dense "Divo."

One thing is for sure, Norway can count on a nomination for its crowd-pleasing Un Certain Regard entry, Bent Hamer's "O' Horten," which was just picked up for U.S. distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. A better, more poignant look at the bittersweet process of aging is not to be found anywhere, and it should have great appeal to many in the academy who can identify with its main character, a train conductor (Bard Owe) trying to fill his days after retirement.

If he were in the movie business he could volunteer for the academy's foreign film selection committee and spend his twilight days watching great movies like the one in which he stars.

Twelve days, too many films but never enough, Cannes '08 now seems like a dream or more specifically, to quote Juliette Binoche in her Oscar acceptance, "a French dream."