It was celebrity galore at the Cannes Film Festival 2013 red carpet ahead of the screening of the films in competition on Thursday.
The 66th Cannes Film Festival kick started on Wednesday with the screening of Baz Luhrmann's film, "The Great Gatsby", a 3D romantic film which is an adaptation of F Scot Fitzgerald's novel with the same name.
Several celebrities, including actress Emma Watson, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, French fashion designer and former model Ines de la Fressange, Indian actress Sonam Kapoor, actress Virginie Ledoyen, actress and director Reem Kherici, actress Zoe Felix and actress Zhang Ziyi walked the red carpet on Thursday.
There are 19 films in the competition for the top prize, the Palme d'Or. The films are - "A Chateau in Italy", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Michael Kohlhaas", "Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)", "Heli", "The Past", "The Immigrant", "Grigris", "A Touch of Sin", "Like Father, Like Son", "The Life of Adele", "Shield of Straw", "Young and Pretty", "Nebraska", "Venus in Fur", "Behind the Candelabra", "The Great Beauty, "Borgman", and "Only God Forgives".
Earlier, the who's who of celebrities around the world walked the red carpet at the screening of "The Great Gatsby" and for the opening ceremony of the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes on Wednesday.
The prestigious Palme d'Or award will be announced at the festival which began on 15 May and ends on 26 May, 2013. It is presided over by American director Steven Spielberg and hosted by French actress Audrey Tautou.
The jury includes Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, French actress Ludivine Sagnier, Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, Japanese director Naomi Kawase, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, French actor-director Daniel Auteuil and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu.
The Cannes Film Festival will also celebrate the 100th year of Indian cinema with a special screening of the film, "Bombay Talkies" by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar. Satyajit Ray's 1964 classic, "Charulata" will also be screened at the film fest.
Vidya Balan arrived at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez on Tuesday on the eve of the opening of the International film festival. She looked gorgeous in a dark brownish-red lehenga, high neck choli and black dupatta which were designed by her friend and designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
Other Indian celebrities who will be seen at the event are Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sonam Kapoor, Nandita Das, Sherlyn Chopra and others.
