MUMBAI: The 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will open with Woody Allen‘s new film, Midnight in Paris.

Some of the film‘s stars including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody and Michael Sheen are expected to walk down the red carpet at the opening ceremony.

Sheen, who played football manager Brian Clough in The Damned United, is cast as a pompous intellectual in the film, a romantic comedy set in the French capital. Singing praises of the Newport-born star, Allen has been reported as saying, "Michael had to do the pseudo-intellectual, the genuine intellectual, the pedant, and he came in and nailed it from the start."

A number of big Hollywood names are expected with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, stars of the Pirates of the Caribbean alongside Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jodie Foster.

The festival, to run till 22 May, will screen around 50 films from 33 countries, including India. Forty-four will be world premieres and 20 will vie for the famed Palm D‘Or to be decided by a nine-member Robert De Niro-led jury that will have among others, Jude Law and Uma Thurman.

Shekhar Kapoor‘s, Bollywood, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, the sole Indian movie in the festival‘s official sections will, however, not, be part of the competition lineup.