Cannes film festival 2010: the halfway point

It's six days in at the 63rd Cannes film festival, and the strain might be showing for director Alejandro González Iñárritu and actor Javier Bardem at the photocall for their Palme d'Or contender Biutiful
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Mike Leigh (centre), who won the Palme d'Or in 1996 for Secrets & Lies, could be in line for his second with Another Year, already garnering praise on the Croisette for its bittersweet look at a happy household and the tormented souls it attracts. It stars (from left) Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

Art meets life meets realpolitik at Cannes: former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson (left), herself the subject of Doug Liman's Palme d'Or contender Fair Game, joins Queen Noor of Jordan and director Lucy Walker at the photocall for Countdown to Zero, Walker's documentary about the nuclear arms race
Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

Veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier has had three goes at winning the Palme d'Or – could fourth time be the charm? He appears to be kissing star Melanie Thierry for luck at the Cannes film festival photocall for La Princesse de Montpensier
Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

Later, at the grand premiere for Bertrand Tavernier's La Princesse de Montpensier, actors Gaspard Ulliel, Gegoire Leprince-Ringuet and Melanie Thierry enjoy the view on a small screen
Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

Friends reunited as Costa Gavras (left), director of the 1969 French political thriller Z, greets the film's actor-producer Jacques Perrin at the Cannes premiere of Bertrand Tavernier's La Princesse de Montpensier
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Convergence … actors Youssouf Djaoro and Heling Li with director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun at the Cannes film festival premiere of A Screaming Man (Un Homme Qui Crie), in competition for the Palme d'Or
Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

Josh Brolin (left) is a very busy man as he stars in two films premiering at the 63rd Cannes film festival – first, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, directed by Oliver Stone and co-starring Michael Douglas
Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

Here's Josh Brolin again, this time at the hair-raising premiere of Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, with co-stars (from left) Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts and Gemma Jones
Photograph: Eric Ryan/Getty Images

Actors Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Yeoh soak up the atmosphere at the Cannes film festival premiere of Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which screens out of competition
Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Star Wars creator George Lucas gets into the arthouse vibe with companion Mellody Hobson at the Cannes premiere of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Cannes festival president Gilles Jacob (centre) presents Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon to the world's press at a special screening of a restored print of the Visconti's The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), to kick off the 2010 Cannes Classics sidebar
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images

South Korean director Im Sang-soo (left) is in the race for the Palme d'Or with the sexy The Housemaid, described by Jason Solomons as 'a blend of Hitchcockian gothic and cracked Korean psychodrama'. Here he joins his actors Lee Jung-jae and Jeon Do-youn on the red carpet for the film's premiere screening
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Serial creative partners actor Martina Gusman and director Pablo Trapero have brought their latest collaboration to the 63rd Cannes film festival – Carancho, which screens in the Un Certain Regard section, is set in the Argentinian ambulance-chasing industry
Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

Japanese actor, director, painter and all-round maverick Takeshi Kitano was last in Palme d'Or contention with Kikujiro in 1999, which unspooled a gentle tale of a loudmouth adult saddled with a young companion. His latest, Outrage, is somewhat different
Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

White Ribbon, white knight … 2009 Palme d'Or winner Michael Haneke is congratulated by Juliette Binoche after the director is awarded a Chevalier of Arts and Letters medal at a ceremony at the 63rd Cannes film festival
Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

Never mind the fireworks on screen, actual pyrotechnics greeted the launch of the Doha Film Institute at the 63rd Cannes film festival
Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images for Doha Film Insti

Greenpeace installed cardboard cutouts of fish on the beach in a protest against the fishing of red tuna at the 63rd Cannes film festival
Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

Whatever you do, don't say 'boo hiss' … Indian actor Mallika Sherawat poses with a snake to promote Hisss at the 63rd Cannes film festival
Photograph: Joel Ryan/AP

Not content with the Zombie Women of Satan taking over the beach, people dressed up as the undead went on walkabout on the Croisette in Cannes to promote the film The Dead
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters