Stars Will Light Up Cannes Film Festival

By Peter Mikelbank and Stephen M. Silverman

04/19/2012 at 06:40 AM EDT

The carpet will be red hot – with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson,Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves, Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth, and new parents Emma Heming and Bruce Willis, turning this year's Cannes Film Festival into a two-week A-lister date night.

Add in Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban – and the possibility of a Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith sighting – and you might forget they also show movies at the world's most glamorous film event.

The 65th Cannes fest, which will run from May 16 to 27, formally announced its schedule in Paris on Thursday, and organizers haven't stinted on star power.

One year after Pitt's film Tree of Life took Cannes's top prize, the star is returning, this time with his bride to be, Jolie, who is expected to join him when his New Orleans caper Killing Them Softly vies in competition.



Stewart and Pattinson will turn up separately for their movies, On the Road and Cosmopolis, although don't be surprised to see them together.

Opening night's movie Moonrise Kingdom, being shown in competition, stars Wills.Mud, starring McConaughey and Witherspoon, was a surprise last-minute addition, sources tell PEOPLE.

Also anticipated: Efron and Kidman climbing the Palais steps together. She has two films in Cannes, The Paperboy and the thriller Stoker.

Other names include Kirsten Dunst, James Gandolfini, Kylie Minogue, Viggo Mortensen, Bill Murray, Marion Cotillard, and Chris Rock, who'll join Pinkett Smith for a special afternoon kids' screening of Madagascar 3.