Cannes Film Festival kicks off

The glitz and glamour of this year’s Cannes Film Festival was getting into full throttle today.

All eyes will be on the world premiere of the Indiana Jones sequel during the two-week event.

Outside the competition, Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with Harrison Ford back in the role for the first time in 19 years, is set to provide the most excitement at the 61st Cannes Film Festival.

Clint Eastwood’s latest movie as director, Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, and Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour biopic of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara are among the films competing for the Palme d’Or.

Madonna will also arrive in Cannes during the festival, to attend a fundraising gala for amfAR, the Foundation for Aids Research.

The singer has made a documentary entitled, I Am Because We Are, about children orphaned by Aids in Malawi.

Woody Allen is also showing his latest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz, out of competition.

The Palme d’Or went to Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days last year and to Ken Loach title The Wind That Shakes The Barley in 2006.

Actor Sean Penn leads this year’s jury, which also features actress Natalie Portman and former Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuaron.

British hopes are on Love You More, a film executive-produced by the late director and writer Anthony Minghella and made by artist Sam Taylor-Wood, which has been selected for the short film competition.

Soi Cowboy, filmed in Liverpool and directed by Brighton-born filmmaker Thomas Clay, has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the event.

And Better Things, the first feature film from British director Duane Hopkins, has been selected for the Critics’ Week competition at this year’s festival.

Set in a small, rural community in the Cotswolds, the film tells the story of a group of young people as they struggle to come to terms with the difficulties of growing up in a world of limited opportunities.

The cast features up-and-coming actors as well as non-professional actors.

Better Things received £300,000 of National Lottery funding from the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund.

And a director is taking his film about the aftermath of the July 7 London bombings to the festival.

Shoot on Sight centres around an innocent Muslim who is killed by police in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

The character was inspired by Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead by officers after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

The movie was directed by Jag Mudhra, a US Indian-born film maker who was working in London at the time of the attacks.

Around 4,000 media representatives from all over the world attend the festival in the south of France.

In contrast to the hot weather which Britain has recently enjoyed, Cannes has been overcast and rainy.

But the bad French weather gave way to blazing sunshine yesterday afternoon, in time for the start of the festival.

A UK Film Council spokesman previously said of an absence of British films for the second consecutive year: “People shouldn’t get too hung up on the fact that there are no British films in the main competition section – ultimately it comes down to what films are ready in time plus different trends and tastes each year for what is essentially an auteur film festival.

“This year has already been a great success with the best year ever for British films at the Sundance film festival.”

The festival runs until May 25.