Happy Birthday Cannes

The Croisette all spruced up

Unlike February's Berlin Film Festival, Cannes always offers fantastic weather – an advantage not to be underestimated. The Cote d'Azur boasts perennial sunshine, which helps to attract stars from around the world, and the Hollywood glitterati are always welcome adornments to the red carpets. This year, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt and Reese Whiterspoon are all expected to attend.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Homegrown cinema

Of course, the competition for the Golden and the Silver Palm is always a showcase for new French cinema. Festival director Thierry Fremaux has invited several French films into this year's competition, including works by Jacques Audiard, Alain Resnais and Leos Carax. The latter is showing his eagerly anticipated "Holy Motors" (pictured).

Happy Birthday Cannes

Cronenberg, the Canadian auteur

When Canadian director David Cronenberg has a new film to show, the world's biggest festivals fight over it. Cannes traditionally has the best chances, and it won out again this year. "Cosmopolis", based on a novel by Don DeLillo, is about all the things that can happen to a stockbroker on his way to the hairdresser - including a chance meeting with Juliette Binoche.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Red carpet fashion show

Premieres begin with the parade along the famous red carpet. Photographers shriek to lure the best poses from the stars, while reporters plead for a short statement. And, of course, the eyes of the world are on the stunning wardrobes of the actresses - as last year, when Chinese actress Fan Bing Bing graced the Croisette.

Happy Birthday Cannes

An Iranian regular

Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, born in 1940, has been a Cannes regular for many years, and he won the Golden Palm 15 years ago. His new film "Like Someone in Love" is also in this year's competition. The French-Japanese co-production details a mysterious meeting between a young woman and an old man in Tokyo.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Great Danes

Denmark has been a cinematic superpower for many years, and this year's Cannes is graced by the latest work from Thomas Vinterberg, who won the Jury Prize in 1998 for "Festen." Vinterberg's 2012 offering "Jagden" features Mads Mikkelsen (pictured) playing a man who believes he faces false accusations of pedophilia. Child abuse was also a theme of "Festen."

Happy Birthday Cannes

The jury

Italian director Nanni Moretti, who won the 2001 Golden Palm for "The Son's Room," is the president of this year's Cannes jury. He is joined by German actress Diane Kruger, US director Alexander Payne and French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. They decide who gets the big prizes this year.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Bleak work from Ukraine

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa has also been invited to Cannes once again, after showing his debut "My Joy" in 2010. His new work "In The Fog" is set in 1942, and depicts scenes from the Soviet front in World War II. It is a German-Dutch-Lithuanian-Russian co-production.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Global co-productions

More and more films are now made with money from several countries – often on different continents. One example of a "global" production like this is "Post Tenebras Lux," by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. The movie, competing for this year's Golden Palm, was completed with money from the Netherlands, France, Mexico and Germany. It was filmed in Mexico, England, Spain and Belgium.

Happy Birthday Cannes

View from America

Cannes always makes room for big Hollywood cinema. Several studios use the festival as a launch pad for their latest major productions. But the US competition entry "The Paperboy" is a more modest affair, about a falsely convicted man played by John Cusack (pictured). The movie, set in 1960s Florida, promises classic US courtroom drama.

Happy Birthday Cannes

A German view of Turkey

Once again, German films are few and far between in Cannes, though Hamburg director Fatih Akin is presenting his new documentary "The Garbage in the Garden of Eden," in one of the festival's sub-sections. The movie charts the struggle of a tiny Turkish village against a giant garbage dump.

Happy Birthday Cannes

Cannes turns 65

Over the decades, Cannes has established itself as the world's premier film festival, and around 4,600 journalists are once again expected this year. Unlike Berlin, Cannes is not a people's festival, where the general public gets to see the films. And at no other festival is so much filming and photographing going on. Moreover, few other festivals offer cinema on the beach!

Author: Ben Knight | Editor: Andreas Illmer