Australia`s Top Picks for Cannes

THE first three were selected for the main competition:

The Piano (Jane Campion): An emotionally complex story about an Australian woman who travels to New Zealand in the 1850s with her young daughter for an arranged marriage. It stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and Sam Neill.

Broken Highway (Laurie McInnes): A young merchant seaman (Aden Young) travels to a small coastal town to deliver the bequest of a dead workmate and friend.

Frauds (Stephan Elliott):An insurance investigator blackmails and robs his victims in a series of games, pranks, and tortures. It stars Phil Collins, Hugo Weaving, and Josephine Byrnes.

Bedevil (Tracey Mofatt):A trilogy of ghost stories that follows characters pestered by visions in three gothic settings in tropical northern Australia. A debut feature film, it was selected for Un Certain Regard, a category for off-beat films.

Excursion to the Bridge of Friendship (Christina Andreef):A famous Bulgarian folksinger writes to a stranger in Sydney in hopes of bringing her talent to the West. The stranger wants no part of it. A short film, it was invited to compete in the non-award category that gave "Strictly Ballroom" its start.