Anyone got a Cannes opener?

Arguably the worlds glitziest film festival, Cannes kicked off overnight with the who’s who of the celebrity world walking the red carpet at the French Riveria. Lets be honest, I couldn’t give a flying Dutchman about who wore what and all that movie-star b/s. The reason I look forward to Cannes is the stellar line-up of films which can be made or slayed by the worlds most respected critics. Cannes is an excellent preview of what's going to be the big movies critically (sometimes commercially) over the next six months. The buzz this year has been all about Pixar’s Up (above) which was selected as the first animated 3D film to open the festival in Cannes 62-year history. You can watch the very interesting and visually breathtaking trailer here. The other big buzz-fueller is Inglorious Basterds, the latest from Movie Mazz favourite and previous Palme D’Or winner Quentin Tarantino. The long-awaited flick starring Brad Pitt and Michael Myers is a blood and guts WWII tale (see poster below for further confirmation) about a group of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to murder Nazi’s in German occupied France. Watch the trailer here. It’s nice to see selectors have thrown in a horror film as one of the movies to screen (out of competition). Drag Me To Hell from horror legend Sam Raimi (also known as the guy who did the Spiderman films). Other films to screen at Cannes that are on my radar are Oscar winner Ang Lee’s humourous look at the 1969 Woodstock festival aptly titled Taking Woodstock, Anne Aghion’s My Neighbour My Killer which looks at the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, Heath Ledger’s last film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by Terry Gilliam, Broken Embraces Pedro Almodovar's follow-up to Volver starring Penelope Cruz, Looking For Eric by former Palme D'Or winner Ken Loach and Australian aboriginal love story Samson & Delilah. And what a judging panel! Probably one of the most exciting I’ve seen since Natalie Portman was on the panel. It’s made up of French actress Isabelle Huppert (president), Italian actress, director, screenwriter Asia Argento, Turkish director, screenwriter Nuri Bilge Ceylan, South Korean director, author, screenwriter Lee Chang-dong, U.K author, screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, Taiwan actress Ahu Qi, American actress Robin Wright Penn and Movie Mazzupial homeboy American director James Gray (booyah!).It’s interesting to note Vanity Fair cancelled their annual exclusive party due to American dollars turning to ash when placed in the sun. However, that hasn’t stopped the multi-million dollar yachts made from the tears of low-income workers still anchoring in the bay. Stay posted for Cannes twitterings.