Critics' yays and nays may not predict winner

One of the undoubted joys of Cannes (for a journalist, at least) is the fact that you are, unusually, experiencing films in a happy void. That is to say, most of the movies are premieres and, as result, the reviewer is in no danger of being swayed by other, earlier notices. So it is of great interest to peruse the chart, compiled by Screen Magazine, which uses a panel of high-profile critics to assess the standing of films vying for the Palme d'Or.

This critic's joint favourite film in competition was, at time of writing, easily the worst reviewed picture on Screen's list. Everybody else loathes Takeshi Kitano's gangster drama Outrage. The second most poorly reviewed, confirming the director's decline into wilful misery-porn, is Alejandro González Iñárritu's dreary Biutiful.

Comfortably at the top of the chart is my other favourite film of the competition so far: Mike Leigh's moving, funny Another Year.In a strong second place we find Of Gods and Men, a very powerful film by youngish French director Xavier Beauvois. None of the other films comes anywhere close.

So, at present, it looks like it has to be the Leigh or the Beauvois? Not necessarily. Last year, despite languishing at the bottom of the Screen chart, Lars von Trier's Antichristhad some very vocal supporters in the jury. Still, Outragedoes not, sadly, seem to have a prayer.