Stars gather for Cannes Film Festival
Actors, movie-makers and film fans are gathered in the South of France today for the start of the Cannes Film Festival.
A host of Hollywood stars are jetting in for the annual extravaganza.
The hottest ticket of the festival is, without out a doubt, the world premiere of the new Star Wars film.
Fans have waited 28 years for the final episode in George Lucas’s epic sci-fi saga.
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen will be in Cannes for the screening of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith this weekend.
Before that comes Match Point, starring Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen’s first movie to be set in London.
Sharon Stone, Liza Minnelli, Paris Hilton, Mischa Barton, Clive Owen, Colin Firth and Brittany Murphy are among the celebrities who will be gracing the red carpet.
Neither Star Wars nor Match Point are in official competition – this year’s contenders for the Palme d’Or are a more arthouse selection.
Cult directors Wim Wenders, Lars Von Trier, Gus Van Sant, David Cronenberg and Jim Jarmusch all have films in the running.
Sin City, the dark comic book adaptation starring Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke, is also in contention.
And actor Tommy Lee Jones is a surprise entry with his directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.
There are no British films up for the Palme d’Or.
But Chromophobia, directed by Brit Martha Fiennes and featuring her brother Ralph alongside Penelope Cruz, has been selected as the closing night film.
And in the short film competition, former railway worker Ben Crowe has been entered with a film he made for just £400.
Crowe, 27, who has never been to film school, shot The Man Who Met Himself on the weekends and persuaded his non-actor brother Daniel to take the starring role.
The six-minute short beat 3,000 other entries to make the competition.
Elsewhere, the festival will offer sneak previews of forthcoming films.
They include The Brothers Grimm, Terry Gilliam’s new film with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the famous storytellers; Stoned, the biopic of Rolling Stone Brian Jones; and animated film Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit.
