CANNES - Cannes kicks off Wednesday with a 3D crowd-pleaser cartoon as a bevy of auteur directors and megastars, from Quentin Tarantino to Brad Pitt, jet in for the annual film festival frenzy.
The notoriously extravagant event has toned down the glitz for this year's crisis-era bash, but a galaxy of top-notch movie celebrities are expected to walk up the red carpet by the palm-fringed beachfront over the next 12 days.
Tarantino's long-awaited "Inglourious Basterds" -- a blood-and-guts World War II tale of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to murder Nazis -- is one of the 20 films vying for the Palme d'Or top prize to be handed out on May 24.
But before the serious stuff, the festival strikes a light note by kicking off -- for the first time in its history -- with a 3D animated film, a Pixar production titled "Up" and directed by Pete Docter.
The lofty tale of an elderly balloon-seller and a chubby eight-year-old embarking on a barmy Latin American adventure gets its official screening late Wednesday when the festival officially opens.
But the hundreds of journalists who donned 3D spectacles for a morning press projection gave a resounding round of applause to the 150-million-dollar film which many industry figures say heralds a brave new world.
"If Cannes are making a statement, they're betting on the future of cinema -- which is digital and 3D," said trade magazine Variety's Anne Thompson as she emerged from the screening of a film she said was "another winner from Pixar."