Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival is the world's most famous film festival. This is the 63rd outing of the event that takes place each May at Cannes on the French Riviera. A beguiling mix of arthouse and Hollywood blockbusters make up the movie fayre this year. There will be a fair sprinkling of movie heavyweights in town to grace the red carpet with the likes of Ridley Scott, Woody Allen and Tim Burton making an appearance.
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The opening film is Ridley Scott's long awaited Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe revisiting his winning partnership with Scott some years after the success of Gladiator.
Scott isn't the only director with a major movie to peddle. Oliver Stone is hoping for further success in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, which sees Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko released from prison to become a bestselling motivational guru.
As well as mainstream movies there are works from arthouse directors across Europe, North Africa, Mexico, the Middle East, Thailand, the United States and Britain.
The directors up for the big prize, the Palme d'Or, are Mike Leigh, Bertrand Tavernier, Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostomi or Alejandro González Iñárritu. The chair of this year's jury will be American director Tim Burton who is, himself, enjoying a big hit with Alice in Wonderland.
There is also a premiere from Cannes regular Woody Allen. His latest outing, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, is shot in London and stars Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas, Anna Friel and Freida Pinto.
Last year's festival was regarded as real success with Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, winners of the festival's top two prizes in 2009, acclaimed as modern classics. Up, a film about an old man who flies to South America on board a house tied to balloons, was also a critical and commercial hit for Pixar. While Quentin Tarantino enjoyed success with Inglourious Basterds
The arrival of so many big names will please those that saw last year's, albeit high quality festival, as being somewhat bereft of the usual glitz and glamour associated with the event.
The festival takes place between 12th to the 23rd of May.
