Chinese film director Jia Zhangke is seen in a file photo. [File Photo: yule.sohu.com]

Chinese director Jia Zhangke's "24 City" is nominated as the only Chinese movie to compete for the highest prize "Golden Palm" in the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival.

The movie is to compete with 18 other movies including Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" and Steven Soderbergh's "Che" during the Festival, which will be held from May 14 to 25 in the resort town of Cannes, south France.

The story tells three beautiful women's fate in the process of China's urbanization after 1958.

In 2002, the director failed to reach the top with his movie "Unknown Pleasure" and the "Golden Palm" went to Roman Polanski's "The Pianist".

With an earlier movie "Sanxia Haoren" (Still Life), depicting the giant Three Gorges Dam project and its impact on ordinary people during the upheaval, the Chinese director won 2006 Venice Film Festival top award Golden Lion.

The Cannes Film Festival, founded in 1939, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice and Berlin.