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The premiere of thriller Blindness, starring Julianne Moore, will kick off the world's top film festival later.

Harrison Ford will be among the stars flying in for Sunday's launch of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the French resort.

Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro and Madonna are also launching films there.

Eastwood will be in Cannes as the director of Changeling, a child abduction drama starring Angelina Jolie.

Top prize

De Niro plays a fading Hollywood producer in the festival's closing film, Just What Happened?, and Madonna will show her documentary about children orphaned by Aids in Malawi.

Some 22 films are in competition for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, including Blindness and Changeling.

Blindness is directed by Brazilian Fernando Mereilles, whose previous credits include City Of God and The Constant Gardener.

Other films in competition include the directorial debut of Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Kaufman's film, Synecdoche New York, is a typically idiosyncratic tale of a theatre director - played by Philip Seymour Hoffman - who tries to build a scale model of New York City in his attic.

Also showing out of competition at the festival are Jack Black's animal animation Kung Fu Panda as well as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Choice of films

No British films feature this year, but artistic director Thierry Fremaux said the choice of films should be judged over "four or five years", rather than just one.

"There are no English films this year, but let's hope to have more next year," he said.

Mr Fremaux, who has been Cannes' artistic director since 2001, said he often fell foul of countries who felt they deserved to have films at the festival.

"Last year, we didn't have any Italian films in the competition, so my reputation there was very bad," he told the BBC.

"This year, we have Italy back with two films in competition, so my reputation is very good in Italy."

He also noted that Hunger, a film by first-time British director Steve McQueen, was opening the festival's secondary competition, Un Certain Regard.

The film portrays the last weeks in the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died in prison after refusing food for 66 days in 1981.

(BBC)

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