Good news: the Guardian and Variety both confirm that Synecdoche, New York, looks set to premiere at Cannes next month.

With five days to go before the Cannes Film Festival announces its line-up, Hollywood is bracing itself for an anaemic showing by avant-garde American film-makers. Last year's Croisette was swelled by a number of anticipated US features that garnered strong critical acclaim, among them the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac and Gus van Sant's Paranoid Park.

However this year, uncertainty over production schedules brought on by the recent writers strike has severed supply lines and so far only Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, appears to be competition-bound.