(From L) French actress and president of the jury Isabelle Huppert, Italian actress and director Asia Argento and Taiwanese actress Shu Qi pose during the jury members photocall Wednesday at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

Cannes lifts off with 3D cartoon comedy “Up” on Wednesday as Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino join a bevy of auteur directors and megastars flying in for the French Riviera film festival frenzy.

Tarantino’s long-awaited “Inglorious Basterds” – a blood-and-guts World War II tale of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to murder Nazis – is one of the 20 films vying for the Palme d’Or top prize.

But before the serious stuff, the festival strikes a light note by kicking off – for the first time in its 62-year history – with a 3D animated film, the Pixar production titled “Up” and directed by Pete Docter.

The lofty tale of an elderly balloon-seller and a chubby eight-year-old boy scout embarking on a barmy Latin American adventure gets its official screening – and world premiere – late Wednesday when the festival officially opens.

But the hundreds of journalists who donned geeky 3D spectacles for a morning press projection gave a resounding round of applause to the US$150-million film which many industry figures say heralds a brave new world.

“If Cannes are making a statement, they’re betting on the future of cinema – which is digital and 3D,” said trade magazine Variety’s Anne Thompson as she emerged from the screening of a film she said was “another winner from Pixar.”

The 20 films in competition for the Palme - by both big-name directors and lesser-known auteurs from the Philippines, Denmark, New Zealand and many other points across the globe - start screening on Thursday.

From “Brokeback Mountain” Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, to veteran New Wave icon Alain Resnais, at a ripe 86 back behind a camera, the world’s grandest film-makers are competing to take home the coveted prize.

They include four previous Palme winners – Tarantino, Jane Campion, Lars Von Trier and Ken Loach – who will line up alongside Pedro Almodovar, Johnnie To, Marco Bellochio, Elia Suleiman, Lou Ye and Park Chanwook.

Lee takes a humorous look at the 1960s Woodstock festival, Suleiman offers a Palestinian family saga, while in an out-of-competition movie, Anne Aghion’s “My Neighbor, My Killer” recounts the chilling aftermath of the Rwanda genocide.

French star actress Isabelle Huppert, the president of the jury that will pick the winner on May 24, the festival’s closing day, said a tough task lay ahead for the nine-member panel that includes actresses Asia Argento and Robin Wright Penn.

“We’re here not to judge, we’re here to love films,” she quipped as she gave a press conference flanked by British writer Hanif Kureishi, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong and other jury members.

The late Heath Ledger’s unfinished stint in Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” being screened out of competition, is also guaranteed to create a buzz.

The film was almost abandoned when the Australian died from an accidental prescription drug overdose, but was saved when actors Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell were brought in to play his character in the unfinished scenes.

Star power and prestige have helped Cannes - which organizers say is the biggest global media event after the Olympic Games - limit the damage from the global economic slowdown compared to some other big industry events.

But belt-tightening is in the air, with industry players trimming back on the champagne-fuelled parties and the expensive extras, advertisers and local professionals said.

The most high-profile sign of cost-cutting came when Vanity Fair magazine called off its exclusive party. And at the Cannes Market, the movie world’s biggest deal-making forum, executives are sounding a note of caution.

But the mega-yachts are still anchored in the bay and the palatial hotels along La Croisette – the palm-fringed seafront – are booked out for A-listers such as Penelope Cruz, Pitt, Depp and Law.

Source: AFP