Cannes Film Festival 2024 kicks amid off-screen drama

Hollywood stars have jetted into Cannes as the world's most famous film festival gets underway in dramatic circumstances, including a fugitive director's daring escape from Iran, and a looming cloud of fresh #MeToo allegations.

The festival officially kicks off in the evening on Tuesday.

Director Francis Ford Coppola's decades-in-the-making epic "Megalopolis," an Ancient Rome-inspired saga set in a corrupt modern-day city, is the most anticipated of this year's entries for the top prize Palme d'Or.

But darker, off-screen plotlines have emerged on the eve of the festival's 77th edition.

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, also competing for the Palme d'Or, revealed he had secretly escaped from Iran, days after receiving an eight-year prison sentence.

Iranian authorities pressured him to withdraw his film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" from Cannes. Rasoulof expressed gratitude to those who helped him escape on Instagram.

Cloud of controversies

Meanwhile, France's film industry is in the midst of a belated #MeToo reckoning, with a string of accusations against its biggest star, Gerard Depardieu, and rumours in the run-up to Cannes of more accusations to come against high-profile figures.

Camille Cottin, star of hit television series "Call My Agent!" and an outspoken feminist, will host this year's festival.

She said there were a lot of issues she would like to address in her opening speech. "But it's also supposed to be a festive moment... and I've only got four minutes," she said.

Adding to the off-screen drama, a group of festival employees have called for a strike over pay and conditions that could cause disruption at the event but festival head Fremaux insisted the focus this year will be squarely on the movies.

"No controversies come from the festival, we have taken care to ensure the main reason we're all here is cinema." he told reporters.

Among the other entries for the Palme d'Or is "The Apprentice" — a biopic of Trump's formative years from Iranian-born director Ali Abbasi. It stars Sebastian Stan, known for playing the Winter Soldier in Marvel films.

Film fans are also excited for new works from body-horror maestro David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Italy's Paolo Sorrentino ("Parthenope") and Oliver Stone ("Lula", a documentary about Brazil's president).

Playing out of competition is "She's Got No Name", one of China's biggest-ever productions, which features megastar Ziyi Zhang tackling the highly sensitive topic of women's rights. Legendary Japanese animators Studio Ghibli — makers of "Spirited Away", "My Neighbour Totoro" and "Howl's Moving Castle" — will receive an honorary Palme d'Or, the first offered to a group.

And the festival will round off on May 25 with a final honorary award for "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.