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CANNES (AFP) - Cannes will crown the winner of its coveted Palme d'Or top prize Sunday with a pitch-black thriller by US duo Joel and Ethan Coen and a wrenching Romanian film on abortion leading the race.

Critics at the 60th anniversary edition of the film world's paramount showcase called the 22 competition contenders a mixed bag of gems and clunkers, in which the best were world-class and the bad were baffling howlers.

Audiences cheered the ever-reliable Coen brothers for "No Country for Old Men," a picture set in West Texas that offered comedy, adrenaline and a mind-blowing performance by Spanish star Javier Bardem as a cold-blooded killer on the loose.

A much smaller picture by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu stunned hardened festival veterans with an unflinching look at a desperate woman's search for an illegal abortion under the communist regime.

Film industry bible Variety called the film a revelation.