Helmed by Italian director and President of the Jury Nanni Moretti, the jury is an equal split of four men and women, with actors outnumbering directors by four to three. The self-confessed cinephile Gaultier completes the nine-strong panel.

Now in his 40s, and still best known for his roles as a heroin addict in Trainspotting and Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi’s in Star Wars, Ewan McGregor may view his place on the jury as an opportunity to showcase his newfound maturity. He played an uptight civil servant in his most recent film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, after performing opposite Eva Green in the pensive love-story Perfect Sense late last year.

Now one of the leading exporters of British cinema, Andrea Arnold grew up in Dartford, Kent, on the sort of council estate that would form the setting for her later work, most notably Red Road and Fish Tank, both of which won the third place jury prize after competing for the Palme d’Or. The last time Arnold sat on a festival panel she forgot to turn her phone off; treating the press corps to a rendition of Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ at the premiere of Wuthering Heights at last year’s Venice film festival.

The quirky-indie-comedy darling Alexander Payne is the Jury’s sole representative of the United States. While his only film in competition to date has been About Schmidt in 2002, his stock is up after he cast George Clooney in The Descendants, described by movieScope on its release as an “elegant and entertaining piece of work.”

The German actress Diane Kruger seems capable of bridging the divide between European cineaste and Hollywood glamour.  She enjoyed a brief career in Beverley Hills after being cast as Helen of Troy in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy (2004), before working primarily in Europe on films like Days of Darkness, Anything for Her and Mr Nobody. She received renewed international attention for her lead role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Completing the French contingent is veteran actress Emmanuelle Devos, who starred in Jacques Audiard’ Sur mes lèvres—for which she won the César Award for Best Actress—and The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

Also judging is the Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass, who performed in Eran Riklis’ Lemon Tree, the Israeli film that, after dividing critics, won a slew of festival awards, and the Haiti-born director Raoul Peck, best known for the documentary Lumumba, about the rise to power of the Congolese president Patrice Lumumba.

Early tips for Palme d’Or success include Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’s adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, David Cronenberg’s Dan DeLillo adaption Cosmopolis, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and Michael Haneke’s Armour.

Decent outside bets are Lee Daniels’s The Paperboy, John Hillcoat’s Lawless and Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly. And no one should discount Jacques (A Prophet) Audiard, who returns to the competition with Rust and Bone.

The Cannes Film Festival will run from 16 to 27 May 2012.