Cannes 2016: Kristen Stewart, Marion Cotillard Rule With 2 Films Each

France: There will be no shortage of stars at the Cannes film festival. But this year, Twilight actress Kristen Stewart and French film actress Marion Cotillard are sweeping into the French resort town with films in the official selection.

Marion, 40, who has become a transatlantic celebrity with an Oscar and several Hollywood blockbusters, will appear in two films in the running for the top prize, the Palme d'Or.

In From the Land of the Moon, set just after World War II, Marion stars as a woman caught in an unhappy marriage who falls in love again. She also stars in It's Only the End of the World by French Canadian director Xavier Dolan, about a writer who returns home to tell his family he is dying.

Marion also won America's highest acting award in 2008, the Oscar and Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to win France's equivalent, the Cesar, in 2015, for her supporting role in Clouds of Sils Maria.

Kristen, 26, became a celebrity icon for an entire generation as Bella in the blockbuster vampire film Twilight.

This year, she appears in the out-of-competition opening film, Woody Allen's Cafe Society, about a young couple who fall in love in 1930s Hollywood.

She is also starring in Personal Shopper, a ghost story set in the Paris fashion world, which is running for the Palme d'Or. Kristen has collaborated with Sils Maria director, France's Olivier Assayas for the film.

Kristen, a Los Angeles native, was first discovered by a talent scout who spotted her in a school play at the age of eight.

Her breakout role was opposite Jodie Foster in the 2002 thriller Panic Room and at 17 her career rocketed into the stratosphere when she got the role of Bella Swan in Twilight.

Her relationship with Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson made her a tabloid favourite, particularly after she was pictured cheating on him with then-married director Rupert Sanders in 2012.

Up-and-comers

The festival will also feature young up-and-comers with Lily-Rose Depp and Elle Fanning.

With parents like Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp and French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis, Lily-Rose was never going to fly under the radar, and the 16-year-old has already turned to acting and become the teenage face of Chanel.

She makes her Cannes debut as legendary American dance prodigy Isadora Duncan in La Danseuse (The Dancer), which will be shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.Lily-Rose made her debut alongside her father in Kevin Smith's 2014 horror comedy Tusk.

She also stars in the upcoming French drama Planetarium alongside Natalie Portman.

Another Cannes teen star is American actress Ellie Fanning, 18, who features in Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's horror thriller The Neon Demon about cannibalistic models.

Elle Fanning is the younger sister of former child star Dakota Fanning. Her ascent into stardom began when she was just two-years-old, playing a younger version of her sister's character in the 2001 Michelle Pfeiffer/Sean Penn film I am Sam.

She has also appeared in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt.

Kirsten Dunst on jury duty

Another Cannes queen is American film star Kirsten Dunst, one of four women on the nine-member jury who will decide who wins the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the world's most prestigious film festival.

Kirsten, 34, won the Best Actress Award at Cannes five years ago for her part in Lars von Trier's Melancholia.

Like some of her fellow Cannes royalty, she was a child star before building a glittering career by mixing arthouse hits like Interview with the Vampire and The Virgin Suicides with the Spider Man films.

She will soon be seen in Woodshock, a first foray into filmmaking for Los Angeles fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy.