Spike Lee, David Robert Mitchell films will compete in most surprising Cannes lineup in years

With the banning of red-carpet selfies, a bitter renewal of last year's heated Netflix debate and more intense discussion than usual over how many female directors would be selected for competition, it was shaping up to be a dramatic year for the Festival de Cannes even before its official selection lineup was announced.

For those who hoped Cannes would shake things up further still with its freshest, nerviest, most unpredictable slate in years, the festival did not disappoint.

Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" and David Robert Mitchell's "Under the Silver Lake" will lead a relatively slim American presence in the main competition, for which selections were unveiled Thursday morning in Paris by festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux and President Pierre Lescure.

The festival's lone major studio title was already announced last week: "Solo: A Star Wars Story," directed by Ron Howard (who took over the troubled production from Phil Lord and Chris Miller) and starring Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo, will receive its out-of-competition world premiere at Cannes the weekend before its May 25 release. (The festival runs May 8-19.)

Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," which Focus Features will release in the United States in August, stars John David Washington