Festival De Cannes

The Festival
After the Americans hosted a subdued Oscars, the French are ready with aglittering edition of the most celebrated film festival in the world. The CannesFilm Festival kicks off its 56th annual edition today with the remake of the1952 classic Fanfan la Tulipe starring Penelope Cruz.

Apart from competition for the prestigious Palme d'or, the annual two-weekevent will be the venue for several global premières and star studded parties.The festival will be punctuated by events paying homage to the Italian masterFederico Fellini, marking the ten-year anniversary of his death. Cannes 2003will conclude with Charlie Chaplin's classic Modern Times. 

The Guest List

The official guest list includes several Hollywood big wigs -- Oliver Stone,Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves, MonicaBellucci, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Ewan McGregor. Nicole Kidman, TomCruise and Penelope Cruz also find themselves on the list.

The Indian Connection

Aishwarya Rai, who was rumoured to be in the fray for the next Bond girl buteventually 'missedout', will find herself sitting on the nine-member jury of the Palme d'or withAmerican sweetheart Meg Ryan and Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh. The jury alsofeatures veteran French actor Jean Rochefort, actress Karin Viard, Italianwriter Erri De Luca, Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, French director PatriceCherau and Chinese director Jiang Wen. 

Malayalam filmmaker Murali Nair will be representing India once again with hisfilm Arimpara (A Story that Begins at the End) being screened in the 'UnCertain Regard' section.' Nair's Marana Simhasanam (The Throne of Death)had won the Camera d'or award (given to a first-time director) at Cannes in1999.

Race For Palme d'or

Looking at the list of hot shot filmmakers vying for the top prize, it seemsunlikely that Ms Rai will get any time to cool her heels away from jury duty.Clint Eastwood's crime drama Mystic River is pitted against PeterGreenaway's The Moab Story/The Tulse Luper Suitcase, previous Palme d'Orwinner Von Trier's Dogville, starring Nicole Kidman and Vincent Gallo's TheBrown Bunny.

Eastwood's Mystic River, which stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and KevinBacon, is one of the more high-profile films vying for the prize. The shortlistalso features Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa who has entered BrightFuture for the competition. Last year the Palme d'or went to RomanPolanski's The Pianist, the movie which got him the Oscar for bestdirector.

Spectacular Premières

The 40 'out of  competition' screenings promise scorching action beginningwith the world première of Wachowski brothers' much awaited Matrix Reloaded. Lester James Peries also returns at the age of 84, with a film straight out ofhis native country of Sri Lanka -- Mansion by the Lake, inspired by thework of Anton Tchekov.

The last wish of the late Portuguese director Joao Cesar Monteiro to see hisfilm presented in Cannes will be fulfilled at the screening of his film Vai evem. Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be seen in Cannes promoting hiscomeback film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Full list of films competing for Palme d'or 

20 films representing 13 countries are in competition for the Palme d'or:

A Cinq Heures de L'Apres-Midi -- Samira Makhmalbaf 
Bright Future -- Kiyoshi Kurosawa 
Carandiru -- Hector Babenco 
Ce Jour-La -- Raoul Ruiz 
Dogville -- Lars Von Trier 
Elephant -- Gus Van Sant 
Il Cuore Altrove -- Pupi Avati 
La Petite Lili -- Claude Miller 
Les Cotelettes -- Betrand Blier 
Les Egares -- Andre Techine 
Les Invasions Barbares -- Denys Arcand 
Mystic River -- Clint Eastwood 
Pere et Fils -- Alexandre Sokourov 
Purple Butterfly -- Ye Lu 
Shara -- Naomi Kawase 
Swimming Pool -- Francois Ozon 
The Brown Bunny -- Vincent Gallo 
The Moab Story/The Tulse Luper Suitcase -- Peter Greenaway 
Tiresia -- Betrand Bonello 
Uzak -- Nuri Bilge Ceylan