Will this year's Cannes film festival mark a new wave of Australian movie success?

Leading Australian film figures are optimistic, because 2006 will see the biggest contingent of Australian talent represented at the glamorous festival in two decades.

Eight Australian films have been selected for the 59th annual Cannes International Film Festival, which opens on May 17 and runs until May 28.

"We had a couple of years where things weren't going as well as they could have and now I get the feeling that things are on the up," says acting Australian Film Commission (AFC) chief executive Chris Fitchett.

"There's a real diverse range of new films coming out and I'm confident our box office figures will be up for the year, plus obviously getting eight films into Cannes is a fantastic result.

"The wave that went out for a while, now it's coming back in again."

Fitchett said it was a credit to the Australian film industry to have such strong representation at Cannes.

"There's only about 100 films from the whole world selected," he said.

"So the fact that we've got eight, which is obviously about eight per cent, is just a fantastic result.

"It's been a lot of hard work. There's been more government funding ... and it's really started to pay off these last couple of years."

Australia's history at Cannes dates back to 1949 when three short films were screened - The Valley Is Ours, Cane-cutters and Gold Town.

The first Australian feature film to screen at Cannes was Charles Chauvel's Jedda, in 1955.

More recently, Cannes has been the showground for films such as Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, Toni Collette's Japanese Story, and the 2004 hit Somersault, starring Abbie Cornish.

Other Australian films to have screened at Cannes include Priscilla - Queen of the Desert, Breaker Morant, The Year of Living Dangerously, My Brilliant Career, Strictly Ballroom and Muriel's Wedding.

Australia has a good chance of bringing home some gongs this year, according to Film Finance Corporation chief executive officer Brian Rosen.

"I think there's a strong possibility that there will be some awards ... it would be great extra recognition if that happens," he said.

No Australian films have been selected for the prestigious Palme d'Or competition but three are in the much coveted Un Certain Regard category.