CANNES, France -- Cannes' billion-dollar film market, gathering industry types from across the world, opens Thursday for 10 days of wheeling and dealing with more movies up for grabs than ever before.

The head of the film mart, Jerome Paillard, told Agence France-Presse in an interview that 5,500 films -- in production, post-production or still on paper -- would be seeking funds or distributors at the market against 4,800 last year.

"We've been struck by the growth in the number of films registered at the market this year, which is increasing much more rapidly than the number of people listed to attend," said Paillard, a former producer who has headed the business side of the film festival for 12 years.

Yet the boom in potential business at Cannes comes at a bad time for the international movie industry as DVD sales fall, market costs spiral and movies try to adapt to the new entertainment habits of the younger generation.

With 10,000 directors, distributors and producers from 93 countries on hand for a frenzy of deals worth an estimated billion dollars, the Cannes Market is the film world's biggest.

"A successful Cannes premiere can make a new director's career," said trade magazine Screen International on Thursday, citing last year's Palme d'Or winner from Romania "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" as an example, along with Egypt's "The Band's Visit."

Paillard said there would be a special focus on documentaries during the May 14-23 event as it was tougher to raise global funding for films on real life than for fiction.

But in the United States in particular, private capital was on the look-out to invest in documentary production, he said.

The increase in the number of films shipped into Cannes to seek financing on the sidelines of the festival has forced organizers to offer three extra cinemas for screenings to the 30 existing already, 12 of them equipped for digitally-produced movies.

In total, the market is organizing 1,600 screenings, up from 900 in 2007.

The film market too is continuing to offer "speed-dating" sessions for a few hundred producers desperately seeking backers, with three sessions in three languages, English, French and Spanish.

The fast-paced sessions bring together producers who sit down for 30 minutes with film execs from other countries before changing tables and going on to new talks.

"Our job here is to facilitate contacts between professionals," Paillard said.

The continuing popularity of Cannes, this year holding its 61st event, is due to the bonding between its two sides -- the festival showcasing the films, and the movie executives in town to line up the next year's business in production and distribution, he said.

"The two are totally linked together under one umbrella organization, which avoids developing the market side to the detriment of the festival, or vice versa."

Paillard said buyers first went to the 22 films selected to compete for the coveted Palme d'Or, but that most years there were a few non-competition films on the trade market that also made it to the top.

A labyrinth of screaming billboards and fliers placed in the basement of the red-carpeted palace that hosts the film fest, the Cannes Market gathers around 500 stands, the smallest of them costing ?5,000 ($6,760) to hire for the duration of the event.