Cannes, France ? Tim Burton and a jury of his peers in the world of cinema have a tough task ahead: sorting through a mixed bag of 19 entries competing for top honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

Burton heads the nine-member jury that was busy Saturday watching the last of the films competing for the Palme d’Or, the main prize at the world’s most prestigious cinema showcase. The 12-day festival ends Sunday night with a ceremony to announce winners selected by director Burton and his jury — which includes actors Kate Beckinsale, Benicio Del Toro and Giovanna Mezzogiorno, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and composer Alexandre Desplat.

Among the handful of films that earned largely favorable reviews are the British ensemble drama “Another Year” from director Mike Leigh, a past Palme d’Or winner for “Secrets and Lies, and French filmmaker Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men,” a tale of martyrdom based on the true story of seven monks beheaded during Algeria’s civil war in 1996.

Two other past Palme d’Or winners also are in the running — Britain’s Ken Loach (“The Wind that Shakes the Barley”) with his Iraq War thriller “Route Irish” and Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami (“Taste of Cherry”) with his cryptic love story “Certified Copy,” starring Juliette Binoche.

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, whose “Babel” won him the Cannes directing prize in 2006, is competing again with the well-received “Biutiful,” featuring a stellar performance from Javier Bardem as a father supporting his family through various criminal rackets in Barcelona.