The Cannes Film Festival has an American flavour this year, with a Hollywood icon heading the jury and a quintessential U.S. literary figure opening the event.

Organizers say The Great Gatsby, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role and directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann, will open this year’s Cannes festival.

Luhrmann points out the film has a French connection. He says author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “some of the most poignant and beautiful passages” of The Great Gatsby at a villa on the French Riviera not far from Cannes.

Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan also star in Luhrmann’s version of the 1925 novel.

Steven Spielberg is heading the jury at the Cannes festival this year, which runs May 15th to 26th.