Pixar film Up has opened the 62nd Cannes Film Festival - the first time an animation¹ has launched the event on the French Riviera.

皮克斯电影Up揭开第62届电影节序幕，这是法国里维埃拉第一次以动画开头的电影节。

Up tells of an old man who makes his entire house airborne

A host of celebrities² donned（著，穿） 3D glasses for the film, not in competition, about a curmudgeonly³（小气的，不和悦的） man who ties balloons to his house in order to get airborne（空运的，空中传播的）.

Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton was among those on the red carpet.

Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Johnny Depp are also all due in town, with new films to promote.

The event runs until 24 May, when the Palme d'Or prize will be announced.

John Lasseter, Up producer and Pixar co-founder, beamed with delight as he and colleagues mingled⁴ with the celebrities on the carpet.

"We're just a bunch of animation geeks from northern California on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival," he said.

The 10th feature film from animation powerhouse Pixar was warmly received earlier at its press screening, where the closing credits were greeted with a round of applause.

UK hopefuls

The 20 directors with films in the running for the festival's top prize include four past winners including Tarantino, who returns with Inglourious Basterds, a Dirty Dozen-style World War II saga⁵ starring Pitt, Samuel L Jackson and Mike Myers.

Three UK films are also competing for the prestigious⁶（享有声望的） prize including Ken⁷ Loach's Looking for Eric, in which former footballer Eric Cantona plays himself as the personal hero of a postman whose life is spinning downhill.

Bright Star - a period drama about poet John Keats - and Fish Tank, a domestic drama starring Michael Fassbender, complete the British contingent⁸（偶然的事情，份儿） in the main competition.

Fassbender, who won plaudits（鼓掌，喝彩） for his portrayal⁹（描绘） of hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger last year, also has a role in Tarantino's film.

Out of competition, Terry Gilliam will be premiering The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, starring the late Heath Ledger¹⁰ in his final screen role, which had to be completed by Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law.

French actress Isabelle Huppert will chair the jury this year, having previously¹¹ served as a juror on two separate occasions.

Behind the smiles and flashing cameras, the mood along the palm-lined Croisette waterfront has been an uncertain one, with economic worries balanced by a feeling among festival purists（纯化论者） that films, not parties, would once again be the main focus, Reuters reports.

"This year perhaps we can think about the cinema, not the stars and the starlets（小星星） and the excessiveness of Cannes but the emphasis on the films," festival director Thierry Fremaux told the news agency.