Pictured here are the filmmakers having their short films in competition for the prestigious Palm D'or at the Cannes Film Festival this week. This category is exclusively for short films. The films include: Bébé Requin, in which director Pascal-Alex Vincent develops "the idea that the teenagers of today have trouble asserting themselves as individuals," and Kitchen, an arena where director Alice Winocour pits a young woman against two live lobsters.

Other European short films competing for the Palme d'Or: Before Dawn, by the Hungarian Balint Kenyeres leads us through a long, dialogue-less single-shot sequence about illegal immigration; Podorozhni, a film by the Ukrainian Igor Strembitskyy about how "childhood never returns"; Schijn Van De Maan, a fantasy film by Belgian Peter Ghesquiere about a little boy whose family lives under the boot of a dictatorial regime; and The Man Who Met Himself by the British Ben Crowe.

The island-continent Down Under is also represented in the competition with Clara, an animated short by Australian Van Sowerwine, which gives us a peek into a little girl's brightly pastel yet disturbing inner world, and the noir comedy Nothing Special by New Zealander Helena Brooks. As for the United States, its sole contender in the race for a Palme d'Or is Missing

Holly Shorts Ent.