Cannes Film Festival Kicks Off First Day Of Screenings

The Cannes Film Festival is officially kicking off today with an out-of-competition screening of zombie comedy Final Cut by The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius and will be going from now to May 28 with a huge range of interesting films screening between.

A guest of honor for the Cannes opening ceremony will be actor Forest Whitaker, who will be presented with an honorary Palme d’Or for his years of incredible acting work in films like The Last King Of Scotland. He is also the producer of For The Sake Of Peace, a film screening at the festival on Wednesday.

Another exciting out-of-competition screening coming soon to Cannes is the next George Miller film, A Thousand Years Of Longing, which he pitched as an “anti-Mad Max” in an interview. The film stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, who will both be attending the premiere.

Films in competition for the festival’s top prize will be evaluated by a prestigious jury headed up by actor Vincent Lindon, who performed in last year’s Palme d’Or winner Titane. Other jury members for this year’s festival include plenty of Cannes veterans, and industry greats in their own rights from all over the world.

Directors on the jury include Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, French director Ladj Ly, American director Jeff Nichols and Norwegian director Joachim Trier. Actors on the jury are Indian actress Deepika Padukone, American/British actor/director Rebecca Hall, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace and Italian actress/director Jasmine Trinca.

Check out the gory trailer for Final Cut here. It’s certainly refreshing seeing a horror-comedy get the honors of the prestigious film festival’s first screening.