Cannes kicks off on 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 24 May.

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 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."

The 20 films in competition for the Palme — by both big-name directors and obscure auteurs from across the globe — start screening on Thursday.

Heavyweight auteur smackdown

Cannes 2009, said movie magazine Variety, will see the festival's "biggest heavyweight auteur smackdown in recent years".

From 'Brokeback Mountain' Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, to veteran "New Wave" icon Alain Resnais, at a ripe 86 back behind a camera, the world's grandest film-makers are competing to take home the coveted prize

They include four previous Palme winners — Tarantino, Jane Campion, Lars Von Trier and Ken Loach — who will line up alongside Pedro Almodovar, Johnnie To, Marco Bellochio, Elia Suleiman, Lou Ye and Park Chan-wook.

Lee takes a humorous look at the 1960s Woodstock festival, Suleiman offers a Palestinian family saga, while in an out-of-competition movie, Anne Aghion's 'My Neighbour, My Killer' recounts the chilling aftermath of the Rwanda genocide.

The late Heath Ledger's unfinished stint in Terry Gilliam's 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus', being screened out of competition, is also guranteed to create a buzz at the festival which ends on 24 May.

Light and sombre

The festival, which has become a showcase for respected but not necessarily commercial directors, is this year mostly sombre in theme, with war, fascism, gore and even vampire priests set to fill screens over the next 10 days.

But it kicks off on a light note Wednesday with a 3D animated movie for kids, Pixar's "Up," also showing out of competition.

Set in the wilds of South America, the $150-million adventure is just the tip of the 3D iceberg as far as studio owner Disney is concerned, with a dozen big-budget 3D movies and six more with live-action 3D in the works.

3D, said Cannes festival president Thierry Fremaux, is "one of cinema's upcoming adventures."

Star power and prestige

Star power and prestige have helped Cannes — which organisers say is the biggest global media event after the Olympic Games — limit the damage from the global economic slowdown compared to some other big industry events.

But belt-tightening is in the air, with industry players trimming back on champagne-fuelled parties and expensive extras, advertisers and local professionals said.

The most high-profile sign of cost-cutting came when Vanity Fair magazine called off its exclusive party. And at the Cannes Market, the industry's biggest deal-making forum, executives are sounding a note of caution.

But the mega-yachts are still anchored in the bay and palaces along the seafront are booked out for A-listers like Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, and Jude Law.

In Paris fashion houses, Dior's John Galliano and Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld had scrambled to drape Charlize Theron, Eva Green, Asia Argento or Robin Wright Penn.

The last two are part of the glammed-up 2009 jury headed by French star Isabelle Huppert that will award the prized Palme at the gala close of the festival.

The yearly filmfest rarely goes by without an outcry of sorts.

This year — the 62nd edition — it might spring from a torrid tale of love by banned Chinese film-maker Lou Ye or an Iranian movie on the underground rap scene in Tehran.

And movie buffs and critics are keenly awaiting a new indie film by veteran Francis Ford Coppola, being screened on the sidelines after failing to be selected for the Palme.

"We made a formal offer to Francis Coppola to present his film out-of-competition," said Fremaux. "He declined because he wanted to be in the competition."

AFP