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The film "is a wonderful love letter to Paris," festival director Thierry Fremaux said of the selection.

PARIS – Start spreading the news: the 64th annual Festival de Cannes will bring the Big Apple to the Croisette when famed New York director Woody Allen presents Midnight in Paris on the festival's opening night May 11, organizers said Wednesday.

As previously announced, fellow New Yorker Robert De Niro will preside over the jury for the fest's 64th edition as part of a Franco-American, bi-continental celebration of the Tribeca Film Festival's 10th anniversary.

The romantic comedy will premiere at the Lumiere theater in Cannes on the same day of its release in France.

The romantic comedy, shot last summer in Paris, stars a Franco-American mix of talent including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Lea Seydoux, Adrien Brody, Gad Elmaleh and France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Midnight was produced by Spain's Mediapro and New York-based Gravier Productions. Mars Films will simultaneously release the title in Gaul in 400 theaters as it screens for the Cannes crowd.

Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in North America.

In the first public-professional festival opening night in history, the Festival and its media partner Canal Plus are offering Gallic theater owners the chance to screen the entire opening night program live in their cinemas for filmgoers.

"Midnight in Paris is a wonderful love letter to Paris," festival director Thierry Fremaux said of the selection. He added: "It's a film in which Woody Allen takes a deeper look at the issues raised in his last films: our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life. His 41st feature reveals once again his inspiration."

The 64th annual Festival de Cannes will kick off on the Riviera on May 11th and run through May 22nd.