As Cannes 2010 heads into its second and final week, questions abound as to what films will be taking home juried prizes this Sunday night. After more than 50 years, Cannes has developed a reputation as a festival that can launch a film from obscurity as well as take a film soaked in hype and stop it dead in its tracks.

Some films in competition garnering attention are Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” starring the talented and constantly working Jim Broadbent. It’s an intergenerational tale of friends and family, and the many entanglements in between. From the U.K., Leigh is most famous for 2008’s “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

“Des Hommes et Des Dieux (Of Gods and Men),” written and directed by Xavier Beauvois is also picking up  steam. The French director has authored an interesting film examining the lives of eight French Christian monks living side by side with Muslims in Maghreb in the 1990s. Faith and friendship are tested as violence begins to grip the region.

Director Tim Burton has been named President of the Jury for Feature Films, which seems appropriate, because the director behind such films as “Beetlejuice” and most recently the 3D version of “Alice in Wonderland” has always been able to straddle the worlds of the art house aesthetic and commercial success, a sensibility that Cannes has always seemed to appreciate. Sitting on the Feature Film jury with Burton are Alberto Barbera, Kate Beckinsdale, Emmanuel Carrere, Benicio Del Toro, Alexandre Desplat, Victor Erice, Shekhar Kapur, and Givovanna Mezzogiorno.

An interesting film not in competition but making it as an Official Selection is the five and a half hour (also with a companion two and a half hour film version) mini series “Carlos” directed by Olivier Assayas. The French director has reworked the life of Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal (played by Edgar Ramirez), including some fictionalized material. The mini series is divided into three parts and will air on French television. Assays was inspired by the globe trotting qualities of “Syriana” several years ago, and wanted to create something with a similar feel using interconnected storylines.

Some American films, not in competition but making their debut at Cannes, were Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood,” starring Russell Crowe as the latest incarnation of the most infamous denizen of Sherwood Forest, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” a follow up to the original film (which served as an exclamation point to the glamorous and cocaine fueled 1980s), and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” from Woody Allen.

“Robin Hood” was screened to a large round of indifference from its audience of critics. It seems that the aristocracy of the film world did not take to Scott’s moody prequel, where Robin is known as Robin Longstride, and only hints at what he’s to become during the last part of the film. The reception at Cannes, however, has had very little impact on the film worldwide, as it has gone on to be a financial success.

Stone’s latest “Wall Street” fared much better. Michael Douglas, as the “Greed is Good” icon Gordon Gekko, fresh out of prison, is paired with the over exposed Shia LaBeouf and international darling Carey Mulligan, from “An Education.” It seems that 23 years later, Stone has once again hit upon a winning formula, obviously able to use the recent economic boom and bust as a background for his film.

Allen’s films in recent years have been widely varied in quality. “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” would have had a long way to go to match his last movie to debut at Cannes (the quite satisfying “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), even if a lot of the critic chatter was more favorable. But unfortunately, it wasn’t, and Josh Brolin didn’t get very many high marks as the latest actor to try and channel an alter ego of Allen. The film is slated to be released September 23^rd, so it will remain to be seen whether the lag time between its Cannes screening and wide release will hurt or help the movie.

Each year, there seems to be a different vibe emanating out of Cannes. Last year, Quentin Tarantino hijacked much of the press for his much anticipated “Inglourious Basterds,” which did not disappoint the critics or audience at the festival, and went onto become a world wide hit and Oscar winning film.

This year, it feels wide open, and as always, the international filmmakers have a lot to do with it. And while Hollywood icons such as Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone and Woody Allen (alright, so he’s more of a New York nebbish icon) were on hand to screen their films, none of them hit it out of the park. The festival concludes this Sunday night, with awards given out (including the prestigious Palme d’or, the highest award for a film at Cannes) and the always entertaining closing ceremony.