Paris  -  Former Golden Palm winner Steven Soderbergh's monumental four-hour film about the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara looks to be one of the highlights of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, according to the festival programme presented in Paris on Wednesday.

The two-part Che stars Benicio del Toro in the title role and is the 45-year-old Soderbergh's fifth film to be shown at the most prestigious film festival in the world, and the third in competition for the Golden Palm, the event's top prize.

The US director won the Golden Palm in 1989 for Sex, Lies and Videotape, his first full-length film.

Soderbergh will be vying for the festival's top award against another veteran US, 77-year-old Clint Eastwood, who is showing his new film Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovitch.

German Wim Wenders, who won the Golden Palm for the 1984 film Paris, Texas, is back with Palermo Shooting, a road movie shot in Sicily.

A total of 20 films will compete for the Golden Palm this year, festival general director Thierry Fremaux told journalists in Paris. But because of the large number of movies viewed by selectors, Fremaux said only 19 had been selected as of Wednesday.

These include the first Philippine film to be shown in competition in Cannes in 25 years, Brillante Mendoza's Serbis, as well as Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence), by two-time Golden Palm winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne of Belgium.

Fremaux said that selectors had viewed a total of 4,025 full-length and short films from 107 nations. (dpa)