65th Cannes Film Festival Kicks Off With 'Moonrise Kingdom'

Last night marked the opening of the 65th Cannes Film Festival, the world's most prestigious celebration of cinema as an art form. Berenice Bejo, star of last year's monster hit, The Artist, hosted the ceremony at the Croisette.

The festival runs from May 16 − 27 and boasts a stellar line-up of films from world-renowned filmmakers, including several previous winners of the Palme d'Or. David Cronenberg, Alain Resnais, Andrew Dominik, John Hillcoat, Abbas Kiarostami, Jeff Nichols, Michael Haneke and Apichatpong Weerasethakul will all have exciting new films screening at the festival. Here is the full line-up.

Wes Anderson's much anticipated new film, Moonrise Kingdom, opened the ceremony - and to my delight it has been very well received.

Snippets courtesy of Bonjour Tristesse.

"As in Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson is able to express sincere personal connection and compatibility while employing a highly artificial style. The result is that the core of Kingdom -- the bond between the leads played so forthrightly by newcomers Hayward and Gilman -- is strong, even bracing in its resilience." - Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter)

"Anderson's movies are vulnerable to the charge of being supercilious oddities, but there is elegance and formal brilliance in Moonrise Kingdom as well as a lot of gentle, winning comedy. His homemade aesthetic is placed at the service of a counter-digital, almost hand-drawn cinema, and he has an extraordinary ability to conjure a complete, distinctive universe, entire of itself." - Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian UK)

At the half-way point of the festival I will give an overview of all the events, and an insight into the receptions to the films shown up until that point, and an additional round-up, including awards winners and films to keep an eye out for later in the year, at the very end.