Cannes Film Festival opens with star-studded action flick, but focuses on emerging filmmakers

Cannes focuses on emerging filmmakers

CANNES, France — Tim Burton knows what it’s like to be judged. The Cannes Film Festival jury president said he’s going into the world’s premier cinema showcase with an open mind and empathy for the directors in the high profile competition.

There are fewer household names among the filmmakers at this year’s festival, where the pared-down roster of 19 movies in competition is dominated by emerging filmmakers from Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Still, the French Riviera’s 12-day film extravaganza got off to a glamorous start as Hollywood supernovas Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett came out for the premiere of their action tale “Robin Hood,” a muscular adaptation directed by Ridley Scott. Like most of the other A-list films scheduled to be shown at Cannes, “Robin Hood” is playing out competition.

Burton played down the relative lack of big names at Cannes, saying he and his fellow jurors — including British actress Kate Beckinsale and Puerto Rico’s Benicio del Toro — were going into the competition without preconceptions.

“We don’t want to have a certain kind of thing we’re looking for,” Burton, his eyes obscured by dark shades and his hair a halo of frizz, told reporters at a news conference. “The point is to just feel the films and then discuss them and just be open.”

“We’ve all been judged, so I think we’re going into it with a certain kind of spirit of openness and hopefully compassion for any filmmaker,” said the director of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Edward Scissorhands.”

Key names are among the 19 films competing for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, including new movies by “Amores Perros” director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Cannes best film laureates Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami, as well as Japan’s Takeshi Kitano.

Ahead of the premiere of “Robin Hood,” fans were staking out a spot near the festival headquarters in hope of catching a glimpse of Crowe and Blanchett as they walked the newly laid red carpet later Wednesday.

The media blitz comes at a convenient time for the action-packed film, which will go head-to-head with the reigning blockbuster “Iron Man 2″ when it opens in parts of Europe and the U.S. this week.

Other big-name movies in this, Cannes’ 63rd edition, to be shown out of competition include Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” — the follow up to their 1987 hit “Wall Street” — and Woody Allen’s ensemble romance, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” starring Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and Freida Pinto.

Only one U.S. film will be in the running for Cannes’ top prize: director Doug Liman’s “Fair Game,” starring Watts as CIA covert operative Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked by officials in the Bush administration. In years past, there were as many as five American films in competition at Cannes.

Early contenders for the Palme d’Or include “Biutiful,” by Mexican critical darling Gonzalez Inarritu. Set in Barcelona, “Biutiful” stars Spanish hunk Javier Bardem as a father struggling to protect his children.

With “Certified Copy,” top Iranian director Kiarostami leaves his native country, serving up an Italian-set romance starring Juliette Binoche.

British directors Mike Leigh and Loach, both Cannes laureates, are in the running for a second Palme d’Or — Leigh with his relationship drama “Another Year,” and Loach with “Route Irish,” which is set in Iraq.

This year’s selection also includes a strong Asian contingent, with two films from both South Korea and China, as well as one entry each from Japan and Thailand.

The Cannes film festival runs through May 23.

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