“The Immigrant” features French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as the immigrant Ewa, speaking English and Polish in the film, with Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner as the two men with whom she becomes entangled as she is forced into prostitution.

The film competes with another period piece to premiere on day 10 of the festival: “Michael Kohlhaas”, starring last year’s best actor winner at Cannes, Denmark’s Mads Mikkelsen.

Both films are competing for Palme d’Or, the top prize that will be awarded on Sunday at the close of the festival on the French Riviera.

The many Ellis Island scenes in “The Immigrant”, director James Gray’s first period film and his fourth try for Cannes’ top award, underline his sympathy for those seeking a better life in America.

“Is it a sin to want to survive?” asks Ewa in the film.

Premiering his film as the U.S. Congress debates legislation that could affect 11 million illegal immigrants, Gray told reporters that the criticisms of Italians and Jews at the turn of the century were today being used against Mexicans.

“I’m unabashedly pro-immigration,” said Gray. “You have to accept the fact that that is part of what enriches society, it doesn’t debase the society and I wish we would free ourselves from a bit of the racism, the prejudice.”

New York’s Lower East Side, with its noisy streets filled with seething humanity, creaky tenements and rough bars is vividly portrayed in the film, which received mixed reviews.

“Michael Kohlhaas”, by French director Arnaud des Pallieres, is based on a 19th century German novella by Heinrich von Kleist about a horse trader in 16th-century France who takes up arms against a corrupt lord who has wronged him.

After two of his horses are seized by a nobleman, and his wife is killed trying to retrieve them, Kohlhaas takes matters into his own hands, organizing a small army across the expansive and barren Cevennes region in southern France to seek justice.

Critics applauded the atmospheric visuals of the film but most reviews cited deficiencies in the script and characters that limit the dramatic tension.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Critics at the prestigious festival on the Mediterranean
coast may have hailed Douglas for his performance as Liberace in
Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra”, but it was the
flamboyant pianist’s blind “Baby Boy” who walked away with a
prize.

The Palm Dog award ceremony takes place each year on the
sidelines of the official cinema showcase to honour the
festival’s most memorable canine performance. The name is a play
on the Palme d’Or, the Cannes festival’s top prize.

Organiser Toby Rose said audiences were transfixed by the
“cuddliness” of “Baby Boy”, whose failing health in the movie
brings together Liberace and his new young lover.

Perhaps the most famous dog on celluloid in recent years is
“Uggie”, the Jack Russell terrier star of the 2011 French film
“The Artist”, who is now in retirement.

“In the last two or three years, we’ve seen a lot more films
that have featured dogs, and a lot more films that have featured
dogs for the purposes of bringing in box office – and they
certainly do that,” Rose said.

This year’s Cannes films feature an array of challenging dog
roles, including a very small canine actor’s portrayal of Paris
Hilton’s chihuahua in Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring”.

Underscoring the versatility of man’s best friend, more
dramatic roles were seen in Amat Escalante’s “Heli”, in which a
dog protects a drugs cache, and Arnaud des Pallieres’ “Michael
Kohlhaas”, in which two guard dogs maul a man.

But perhaps the most memorable performance on four legs this
year was from the orange cat in Ethan and Joel Coen’s “Inside
Llewyn Davis”, in which an unlucky singer manages to lose a
kindly older friend’s feline pet.

“The movie doesn’t really have a plot. That concerned us at
a certain point, which is why we brought the cat in. It’s really
about the cat,” Joel Coen joked before the film’s premiere.

(Editing by David Goodman)

“La Vie d’Adele – Chapitre 1 & 2″ (“Blue is the Warmest Color”) is a poignant tale of love and sexuality centered on 15-year-old Adele, in a breakout performance by Adele Exarchopoulos, and her lover Emma (Lea Seydoux), set to premiere on Thursday evening.

The film’s explicit sex and three-hour running time have made it one of the most talked-about films of the 20 vying for the top Palme d’Or prize at the festival that wraps up on May 26. It is French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s first film at Cannes.

The long and explicit sex scenes will create buzz but may hold the film back from wider audiences due to censors and cautious distributors.

Kaya Burgess of the London Times called it “one of the most beautifully and unobtrusively observed love stories I’ve seen on film.”

Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer wrote: “Surely to raise eyebrows with its show-stopping scenes of non-simulated female copulation, the film is actually much more than that: it’s a passionate, poignantly handled love story.”

Kechiche told journalists it was not his intention to make a film about gay rights, in the context of the debate over same-sex marriage which was legalized in France this month, and said the depictions of sex were aimed at depicting beauty.

“We hope that in the scenes the idea of beauty will emerge. I think sensuality is more difficult to film and capture onscreen,” he said.

The film – loosely based on a 2010 graphic novel of the same English title – uses recurring close-ups to linger on the mouth of the lead actress, whether sleeping, eating, or kissing her lover, a sometimes jarring technique that regardless creates an intimate connection between viewer and character.

PRIZE WINNER

A quieter offering also in the main competition is “Nebraska” from U.S. director Alexander Payne, whose “About Schmidt” competed for the top Cannes prize in 2002.

The father-son road trip, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte, is shot in black and white with a quirky, homey sensibility. The film about family, old age and dreams follows a curmudgeonly father who believes he has won $1 million after receiving a sweepstakes flyer telling him he’s a winner.

Son David (Forte) decides to indulge his father and drive him to Nebraska to ostensibly collect his prize after failing to convince him the flyer is a gimmick. Along the way, David discovers never-revealed secrets from his father’s past.

Early reviews were mixed, with some criticizing a formulaic plot and others praising the film’s quiet, melancholic tone.

Veteran actor Dern, who began working in films in the 1960s, said it took eight years for the film to see the light of day.

“That gave me melancholy alone,” he said. “Waiting for eight years.”

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

From choosing the perfect dress and hairdo, to trying not to
trip on the famous red steps, the pressure is on for movie stars
and glitterati at the 12-day Cannes film festival on the swanky
French Riviera which wraps up on May 26.

“It’s always scary and I’m always intimidated by these
things,” actress Carey Mulligan told Reuters TV after her
entrance in the pouring rain at the festival’s premiere of Baz
Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” in a pale pink Dior gown.

“There’s always a lot of pressure. Girls have lots of
pressure. But I felt great and comfortable. Apart from the rain
it was all pretty smooth,” she said.

An actress who can smile, wave to the cameras and sign
autographs while battling wet feet, goosebumps and mussed
hairdos deserves an acting award.

“I’m going to blow away! I feel like Mary Poppins!” joked
jury member Nicole Kidman, wearing a spring-like floral gown,
also by Dior, on opening night.

In the latest celebrity wardrobe malfunction, “Desperate
Housewives” star Eva Longoria inadvertently exposed herself as
she hiked up her gown to avoid red carpet puddles on Saturday.

The foul weather has meant local stores have done brisk
sales of jackets, sweaters, closed-toe shoes and umbrellas.

Some stars still managed to stay immaculately groomed.
French actress Marion Cotillard arrived at Monday’s premiere of
“Blood Ties” by director Guillaume Canet and co-starring Clive
Owen with a high beehive hairdo that would have been impossible
without a girl’s best friend – hairspray.

Even less-glamorous dealmakers who head to the festival to
buy and sell new films have been affected by the weather.

“If this Cannes market turns out to be slower than usual, I
will blame it entirely on wet socks,” tweeted Magnolia Pictures
executive Peter Van Steemburg.

CLASHING PINK

With all eyes in the entertainment industry on Cannes,
making a memorable red carpet entrance is a must for stars, and
brands from Swarovski to L’Oreal also seek to benefit.

“Now the movies, and especially the red carpet, are becoming
the new fashion catwalks,” said Swarovski’s public relations
director Francois Ortarix. “As a brand, we had to be here also.”

Stars managed to keep the fashion stakes high, with
fashionistas like China’s Fan Bingbing showing off new outfits
at a series of parties.

Dior, with its full skirts and elegant appeal, appeared to
be the favourite of the fashion set this year as new designer
Raf Simons has made wooing the A-listers a priority.

Cotillard and actress Jessica Biel attended Dior’s cruise
collection fashion show in Monaco on Saturday night. It was
marked by bold colours and pointy-toed shoes.

But some opted for Chanel, such as “Harry Potter” actress
Emma Watson who chose a pink and black sequined dual-tone dress
for the premiere of Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring”. Model and
actress Milla Jovovich chose a black and white floral sequined
Chanel in one of the few bold prints to hit the red carpet.

An even more striking choice was made by “Baywatch” actor
David Hasselhoff, in town to promote his new movie “Killing
Hasselhoff”, who wore a fuchsia pink shirt under his tuxedo.

“Red carpet, pink shirt … I know, sorry,” he quipped.

(Additional reporting by Mike Davidson and Rollo Ross; Editing
by Pravin Char)

Also competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or award to be
handed out on May 26 is “Un Chateau en Italie” (“A Castle in
Italy”) by Franco-Italian director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi about
the demise of an aristocratic family.

Italian actress Valeria Golino makes her directorial debut
with “Miele” (“Honey”) about a woman who helps terminal patients
end their lives. The movie is competing in the “Un Certain
Regard” category for emerging filmmakers.

Bathed in the beautiful Roman light of yellows and golds,
“La Grande Bellezza” (“The Great Beauty”) is a lush, sweeping
film that both critiques the emptiness of life and revels in it.

We first meet protagonist Jep Gambardella, played by Toni
Servillo, at a late-night bash that makes the famed “bunga
bunga” parties of Silvio Berlusconi look tame.

Jep is living the high life on the laurels of a famous novel
he wrote 40 years ago, and now at 65 is stuck in a rut.

As he reflects on the possibility of writing again, he
questions his hedonistic life and his rich, vapid friends, whom
he entertains at raucous parties at his apartment overlooking
Rome’s Colosseum.

“The film tries to portray a poverty that is not material,”
Sorrentino told reporters on Tuesday. “At the same time, we’re
not passing a negative judgment but showing what it is, and it
symbolizes our country.”

“A BY-GONE TIME”

With its thousands of years of civilization on show at every
turn, Rome is a character in “The Great Beauty” and Sorrentino’s
camera guides us like a privileged guest through locked palaces,
interior courtyards and private terraces.

“You have a portrait of a city that symbolizes a certain
human condition,” Servillo said. “It doesn’t symbolize hope at
all, but rather missed opportunities, a by-gone time.”

In a review, Screen magazine called “The Great Beauty” a
“virtuoso piece of filmmaking.

“An alternately elegiac and world-weary cinematic fresco of
contemporary Rome that references both the melancholy hedonism
of ‘La Dolce Vita’ or Fellini’s ‘Roma’ and the decadence of the
latter days of the Roman empire,” wrote reviewer Lee Marshall.

Sorrentino’s “Il Divo” (“The Divine”) based on Italy’s ex-
Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, won Cannes’ 2008 Jury Prize.

Tedeschi, an actress/director and sister of former French
first lady and supermodel Carla Bruni – chooses as the
centerpiece of “A Castle in Italy” an Italian family who can no
longer afford the upkeep of their ancestral castle.

Inspired by the famous Chekhov play “The Cherry Orchard,”
the film mixes the story of the impending sale of the castle
with the death of a brother, and a budding relationship between
the lead character, played by Tedeschi, and a much younger man
played by French actor Louis Garrel.

In “Honey,” director Golino deals with another kind of
death, euthanasia, following a young woman who works outside the
law to ease the suffering of the terminally ill.

The issue of euthanasia is not the focus of the film, but
rather the inner goings-on of the edgy heroine, played by
Jasmine Trinca, who never emotionally engages with her clients
until she meets one who turns out not to be sick at all.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Typically for Cannes, where critical passions run high, both exuberant cheers and boos rang out after an advance press screening of “Wara No Tate” (“Shield of Straw”), one of 20 entries vying for the top Palme d’Or prize awarded on Sunday.

Miike, whose last appearance at the world’s most important cinema showcase was in 2011, said the selection committee’s decision to include his high-octane cop movie in the main lineup came as a shock.

“When I learned this film was selected I was very surprised, I was really astonished,” Miike told reporters ahead of its official Monday evening premiere.

“If I got the Palme d’Or I’d be delighted of course,” he said. “But I don’t really think this is a film made for the Palme d’Or. But I’m delighted to know that a rather different kind of film, another class of film is in the selection.”

Halfway through the festival, critics have seen a varied array of films, from Ethan and Joel Coen’s quirky ode to folk music “Inside Llewyn Davis” to Amat Escalante’s powerful “Heli” about Mexico’s drug war.

The competition has also included the intense psychological drama “Le Passe” (“The Past”) directed by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, whose “A Separation” won a best foreign language Oscar.

Eagerly-awaited movies to launch this week include U.S. director Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra” about pianist Liberace and starring Michael Douglas, and “La Venus a la Fourrure” (“Venus in Fur”) by Roman Polanski about an actress trying to convince a director to cast her in his latest play.

MANHUNT

Since starting out in motion pictures in the early 1990s, Miike has made over 80 films, including the 1999 horror flick “Audition” and 2004′s “Zebraman” about a family man superhero.

In “Wara No Tate,” four elite police officers are charged with protecting and transporting a high-profile criminal across the country after a billionaire puts a huge bounty on his head for the murder and rape of his granddaughter.

Apparently everyone is after the criminal, played by Tatsuya Fujiwara, raising the stakes for lead cop Kazuki Mekari (Takao Osawa) who is charged with protecting him but who resolutely refuses to kill him himself to reap the reward.

“All of the characters in the film have their own ideas of justice … even the criminal, he has his own approach,” Osawa told journalists. “There are two sides, good and evil, and everyone tries to find a balance to survive.”

Despite his fondness for action, Miike also explores darker themes in the film including the morality of protecting criminals at the expense of victims and how financial desperation breeds violence.

In one early review, Screen magazine’s Tim Grierson cited the “pulpy thrills” of the premise and a gripping lead performance by Osawa, but added that “plausibility issues and an unconvincing exploration of the limits of justice noticeably dampen the fun.”

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; editing by Mike Collett-White)

“Inside Llewyn Davis” by directing duo Ethan and Joel Coen
is a delightful tale about the early 1960s folk music scene, a
tribute to artists living hand to mouth, and an ode to New York
all at once.

Told through the lens of its protagonist Llewyn, played by
Oscar Isaac, the movie retains all the quick repartee and
quirkiness of classic Coen brothers films such as “Oh Brother,
Where Art Thou?” and “Barton Fink”, for which the pair won
Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or in 1991.

But anchoring the film and providing a counterpoint to the
whimsy is the soulful voice and deadpan of Isaac, whose
character just cannot catch a break – from concert promoters,
his agent, or his on-off lover Jean, played by Carey Mulligan.

“Everything you touch turns to shit. Like King Midas’ idiot
brother,” Jean yells at Llewyn.

As if it is not enough to have no money, no job, and nowhere
to live, Llewyn has also managed to lose a kindly older friend’s
orange cat and the chase scenes between man and feline through
the miserable New York winter are among the film’s highlights.

“The movie doesn’t really have a plot. That concerned us at
a certain point. Which is why we brought the cat in. It’s really
about the cat,” Joel Coen joked before Sunday’s premiere.

Drawing spontaneous applause from the critics at an advance
screening on Saturday was a scene in which Llewyn plays back-up
guitar for a friend, played by Justin Timberlake, during a
recording session of a wonderfully absurd song about President
John F. Kennedy and the U.S. space programme.

“I enjoy looking ridiculous in everyday life. So that wasn’t
hard for me,” singer and actor Timberlake quipped to reporters.

“EMOTIONAL JOURNEY”

The Coens’ playful fare followed a mostly sombre slate of
films competing for the top prize, the Palme d’Or, to be awarded
on May 26 by a jury presided over by director Steven Spielberg.

“A boldly original, highly emotional journey through
Greenwich Village nightclubs, a bleak New York winter and one
man’s fraught efforts to reconcile his life and art,” wrote
Scott Foundas of Variety trade paper in a review.

The Coens compete in the prestigious main competition of 20
films against fellow American directors Steven Soderbergh
(“Behind the Candelabra”), Alexander Payne (“Nebraska”), James
Gray (“The Immigrant”), Jim Jarmusch (“Only Lovers Left Alive”).

A darker tone pervades “Borgman” by Alex Van Warmerdam, the
first Dutch film in 38 years in the main competition slate, that
also holds its premiere on Sunday, day five of the festival.

Van Warmerdam weaves a feeling of menace through an oddly
humorous plot line in which a strange wild-haired man, played by
Jan Bijvoet, slowly infiltrates himself and his henchmen into
the domestic life of a well-to-do family.

Part domestic drama, part Robocop – with a finale
reminiscent of Hamlet with a play and a poisoning – “Borgman” is
hard to categorise, but the audience at Sunday’s press screening
appeared rapt over its grisly humour and moral ambiguity.

“I like to show what you call the evil, the bad, whatever
you want to call it, as fairly normal people,” Van Warmerdam
told reporters. “Not creepy people, not weird walking zombies,
just very normal people you’d meet in the supermarket.”

(Editing by Alison Williams)

“Soshite Chichi Ni Naru” (“Like Father, Like Son”) is one of
two Japanese films out of the international roster of 20 vying
to take home the Palme d’Or prize on May 26 from the world’s
largest film festival being held on the French Riviera.

Japan has won four times before, most recently in 1997 with
Shohei Imamura’s “Unagi” (“The Eel”). Its other offering this
year is the stunt-filled police thriller “Wara No Tate” (“Shield
of Straw”) by Takashi Miike.

“Soshite Chichi Ni Naru” stars singer and actor Masaharu
Fukuyama as workaholic Ryota who, along with his docile wife
Midori, played by Machiko Ono, is grooming his 6-year-old son
Keita for success.

Their outwardly picture-perfect family life is shattered one
day after the hospital where Keita was born informs them they
made a mistake and Keita is not their biological son.

“Why didn’t I see it? I’m a mother!” laments Midori after
the revelation, which forces the couple into an agonising
decision – whether to keep Keita as their own, or make a swap.

The film finds moments of humour and humanity when Ryota and
Midori meet the couple, played by Yoko Maki and Lily Franky, who
have brought up their biological son.

Shopkeepers from a different class, they horrify the
sensibilities of Ryota, who sees them as bumbling simpletons
incapable of rearing his son.

But the first impression is eclipsed by recognition of their
kindness and obvious love for their children.

“I wanted to create this total upheaval in the morality of
the main character,” Kore-eda told journalists. “I wanted to
create a real shock in his mind.”

“Soshite Chichi Ni Naru” is Kore-eda’s fourth film to
compete at Cannes, his “Kuki Ningyo” (“Air Doll”) having been
included in the “Un Certain Regard” category for emerging
directors in 2009.

Kore-eda’s gentle film is a contrast to many over the first
four days of competition that have been marked by violence.

Mexican film “Heli” includes a sickening torture sequence,
while a man in Chinese film “Tian Zhu Ding” is driven to carry
out a bloody rampage after failing to thwart corrupt officials.

“After suffering through a wash of nihilism in the official
competition so far, it is a pleasure to experience a film-maker
so at home to big-hearted humanism,” wrote the Irish Times’
Donald Clarke in a review.

A rival family drama, Le Passe (“The Past”) by Iranian
director Asghar Farhadi, also received critical praise after its
premiere on Friday.

“The bookies probably still have Asghar Farhadi’s The Past
ahead in the race for the Palme d’Or,” Clarke wrote.

He added that the warm reaction at a press screening of
Kore-eda’s film on Friday “suggests that the Japanese wizard may
stand a sporting chance of taking home the trophy”.

The prestigious festival on the French Riviera – where the
sun finally emerged on day three – is looking to spot its Palme
d’Or winner among the 20 entries in the main competition and
early reviews were enthusiastic for “Le Passe” (“The Past”).

The intense psychological drama, shot in Paris in French, is
Farhadi’s first to be filmed outside his homeland, where Iranian
censors have allowed the movie to be distributed.

“Le Passe” stars well-known Iranian actor Ali Mosaffa as an
Iranian man who returns to Paris to finalise a divorce with his
wife, Mariel, played by French actress Berenice Bejo (“The
Artist”).

Among the many warm reviews, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw
called the film: “A finely crafted, sinewy drama that anatomises
clotted and complex relationships.”

Back in his former home, “Ahmad” (Mosaffa) is thrust into a
complex drama involving Mariel and her new partner, whose wife
is in a coma, and a resentful teenage daughter struggling to
come to terms with her own guilt.

“There is nothing more universal than family. That is a bond
between my spectators and myself,” Farhadi told reporters.

“The relationship … between a couple is perhaps the oldest
relationship in the history of humanity. There is so much
suffering and pain linked to a couple, yet this suffering and
pain is always different, unique.”

Farhadi’s last film, “A Separation”, which also centred
around a divorce, swept the awards circuit in Europe before
winning an Oscar for best foreign language film last year, the
first Iranian film to win an Academy Award.

In “Le Passe”, Farhadi creates tension that does not let up
from start to finish. Much of the drama takes place in enclosed
spaces – whether inside a car, where accidents can occur at any
moment, or a kitchen, where family secrets are revealed.

Asked about censorship by Iranian authorities, Farhadi told
reporters that even more dangerous was self-censorship.

“I’m sure I have assimilated many of these restrictions,
they are part of me. What I try to do is not to see this as a
form of obstacle but as an asset. I try to find some source of
creation in this kind of a situation.”

“NO JUSTICE!”

Also premiering on Friday was “Tian Zhu Ding” (“A Touch of
Sin”) by director Jia Zhangke, China’s sole entry for the top
prize.

Whereas Farhadi’s film steers clear of politics, Jia’s look
at China’s confrontation with modernity points the finger at the
authorities.

Jia said censorship was not an issue, as the film was based
on real events widely covered in the Chinese press.

Coal miners fighting against regional corruption; migrant
workers constantly on the move; abused prostitutes and suicides
by frustrated assembly-line workers are all elements Zhangke
weaves into a mosaic of contemporary life.

“No justice!” cries one of the characters in the film, when
thwarted in his quest to stop regional bosses from bribe-taking.

Cities loom in the distance throughout Jia’s film, with
bulldozers and construction sites a constant reminder that urban
sprawl continues, encroaching on the lives of the characters.

Jia’s documentary “I Wish I Knew”, about the development of
modern Shanghai, competed in 2010 in Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard”
category for emerging directors.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

True to the variety on offer at the influential jamboree, the second picture on Thursday began with a shot of a nubile young woman sunbathing topless on a beach, watched by a voyeur.

“Heli” by Mexican director Amat Escalante and “Jeune & Jolie” by France’s Francois Ozon were the first two of 20 films competing for the event’s coveted Palme D’Or award.

Director and jury member Ang Lee praised the diversity on offer at the 12-day event on the French Riviera.

“There are different political, social issues, different styles, (the) different charm and charisma of certain filmmakers,” said Lee, who won the 2013 Oscar for Best Director with his “Life of Pi”.

“I hope that there is something that just wows us. Something that we cannot even verbalize and we’ll all look at each other: ‘Oh my God, that’s a Palme d’Or!’ I hope that happens,” he told reporters on Wednesday night.

“FEAR IN THEIR GUT”

“Heli” tells the story of a family dragged into Mexico’s violent drug war through the unwitting actions of a 12-year-old girl in love with a young police cadet.

Escalante’s atmospheric shots of wide Mexican landscapes ultimately give way to stomach-turning scenes of torture.

“My characters suffer violent acts and as a result find themselves under tension,” Escalante said in an interview in the festival program. “In Mexico, everyone lives with a kind of fear in their gut.”

Ozon’s “Jeune & Jolie” is a coming-of-age film featuring actress Marine Vacth in nearly every scene, often nude.

We first see Isabelle, 17, with her well-heeled family on summer vacation, where she has sex for the first time with a young man. Months later, she has begun a secret life as a prostitute.

“The subject of the film is, above all, what is it like to be 17 years old and to feel your body transforming,” Ozon said in an interview.

“All of a sudden, you assault your body in order to feel something and push the limits. Prostitution was a way to get at this aspect,” he added.

This year’s lineup includes five U.S. movies, the highest number in six years, including Steven Soderbergh’s eagerly awaited “Behind the Candelabra” about pianist Liberace, and “Inside Llewyn Davis”, the Coen brothers’ look at the early Greenwich Village folk music scene.

The jury, including famed director Steven Spielberg, Australian actress Nicole Kidman and French actor Daniel Auteuil, will choose the main winner on May 26.

The festival opened on Wednesday night with a film not competing for the top prize – Baz Luhrmann’s glamorous “The Great Gatsby”.

Heavy rain did nothing to stop the fans clamoring for autographs from stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan on the red carpet.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Andrew Heavens)