The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing, with Kung Fu Panda still getting the bulk of the press. Not only is Angelina dominating the festivities with her pregnancy, but saturating the area with people dressed as pandas is a pretty good way to make them pay attention to your film. Apparently Cannes isn’t quite the party scene it used to be, with studios foregoing a good amount of the former lavishness.

The party scene at Cannes is morphing into something a little strange, and hugely diminished, but maybe it’s just good riddance to stupid extravagance. Rumours abound that the primary reason that Blindness scored the opening night gala spot is because Telefilm Canada and other key sponsors were willing to fund the opening night party. There was a lavish dinner at the Carlton Hotel and a funky, late-night fete at the Carlton beach that was populated mostly with Canadians and the French.

The even less desirable closing night position on May 25th falls to Barry Levinson’s little regarded Hollywood comedy What Just Happened? This is a film that was apparently far from the first choice. But its backers agreed to shell out for the party. Hence it gets the out-of-competition closing spot.

Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures is keeping things low-key for the aftermath of Sunday’s premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Variety reported that there will be a filmmakers get-together of just 250 — small by Cannes standards — with no media invited. The theory is that the Indy folks are trying to avoid the Da Vinci Code fate, when critics trashed the film, then celebrated, ruining Ron Howard’s red carpet and the after-party.

[From the Winnipeg Sun]

One of the biggest reasons everyone wants to go to Cannes (versus most of the other film festivals) are the prolific parties. Wait, isn’t it because Cannes is more prestigious? Well apparently it’s more prestigious because of all the parties.

Here are photos from days two and three of the Cannes Film Festival. Anne Consigny, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Emanuelle Devos; Sean Penn and Bono; Petra Nemcova; Jean-Claude Van Damme; Phoebe Price; Natalie Imbruglia; Rachael Leigh Cook and Daniel Gillies; and George Lucas. Images thanks to WENN.