Cannes - Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' apocalyptic Blindness has been given the honours of opening the 61st Cannes Film Festival Wednesday with 22 movies vying for the world's leading movie fest's coveted Palme d'Or.

Meirelles' (The Constant Gardener, City of God) latest film stars American actress Julianne Moore as the only person able to see in a town hit by an outbreak of blindness.

Apart from Blindness topliners Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal, A-list celebrities such as Angelina Jolie (with husband Brad Pitt in tow), Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix, Clint Eastwood, Shia LaBeouf and Scarlett Johansson are expected to turn up for gala screenings in Cannes.

For 11 days the small Cote d'Azur resort town and its famous beachfront promenade become the centre of the global movie universe with films from Israel, Turkey, Singapore, China and of course Hollywood in the race for Cannes' top awards.

This year's festival is placing an emphasis on new upcoming directors. Altogether about 60 films from 31 countries will be shown across all the sections at the festival, with organizers having sifted through a staggering 1,792 movies for the fest.

Apart from a big contingent of films from Latin America in the main competition and a strong presence from Asia in the festival line-up, a highlight of this year's Cannes is likely to be the premiere of Steven Spielberg's fourth movie about the archaeologist-turned-adventure hero, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (dpa)