Great Gatsby kicks off Cannes Film Festival (photos)

Leonardo DiCaprio and director Baz Luhrmann have appeared on the red carpet in Cannes as their new film The Great Gatsby opens the annual film festival.

The movie, based on F Scott Fitzgerald's novel, also stars British actress Carey Mulligan. Early reviews have been mixed though DiCaprio has been praised in the central role as bootlegger Jay Gatsby.

The 20 films in competition include movies by the Coen brothers and Roman Polanski, BBC reports.
DiCaprio - who worked with Luhrmann in his 1996 adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - said that he read the book "in junior high school" but admitted "it didn't quite connect with me".

He said his recent reading of a first edition of the novel "just blew me away - it had so many meanings and nuances".
No British films have been selected in the official competition though several debut filmmakers are being featured in other festival strands, such as the Cinefondation, which selects pieces made by film students from across the world.

Other films in competition include Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra; Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling; Sideways director Alexander Payne's latest film Nebraska; and Jim Jarmusch's vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive, starring British actress Tilda Swinton.

The 2012 winner, Amour, directed by Michael Haneke, went on to win the Oscar for best foreign language film.
Last year's event saw more than 4,600 films exhibited over 10 days, with a huge rise in films from Asia.
China is now the second biggest film market in the world, following the US and recently co-produced the year's biggest hit film Iron Man 3.

Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling and Alain Delon are among the stars expected in the French resort for the festival which ends on 26 May.