( CNN ) -- The economic downturn may take its toll at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival , which opens Wednesday night . But as always , the show will go on . Eli Roth and Brad Pitt are men on a mission in Quentin Tarantino 's `` Inglourious Basterds . '' Studios are cutting back on parties and all the glitz that goes with them , according to news reports . Moreover , there will be fewer people around to cover Cannes , as news organizations around the world trim costs . ( Several , in fact , have tightened up by eliminating their movie reviewers . ) Nevertheless , those who attend may see a bumper crop of good and intriguing films , Variety 's Jay Weissberg told Reuters . `` We 've all been hoping Cannes would pull something out of the bag to make us feel good again . On paper , they have . '' Leah Rozen , film critic for People magazine , said there are several promising contenders for the Palme d'Or , Cannes ' top prize , as well as a number of notable movies premiering out of competition . `` What Cannes really is , is an international festival , and you really see world cinema , '' she said . `` This year , there are 52 films that are going to be represented , of which 20 are in competition . '' See Rozen talk about some of this year 's promising works » . Two of the films in competition are American : Quentin Tarantino 's World War II movie , `` Inglourious Basterds , '' and Ang Lee 's `` Taking Woodstock , '' a tale about the 1969 music festival . Tarantino told The New York Times that he 's been hoping to do a war movie for years . `` You 've got to make a movie about something , and I 'm a film guy , so I think in terms of genres , '' he said . However , the maker of `` Pulp Fiction '' and `` Jackie Brown '' added , that does n't mean what he ends up with resembles what he started with : `` It 's simply the spark that starts the fire . '' `` Inglourious Basterds '' was inspired by a 1978 Italian film that starred Bo Svenson ( `` Walking Tall , Part 2 '' ) and football player-turned-actor Fred Williamson ( `` Black Caesar '' ) . Tarantino 's film , which he characterized to the Times as `` not a remake , '' stars Brad Pitt and Mike Myers . Cannes has been good to Tarantino ; he won the Palme d'Or for `` Pulp Fiction '' 15 years ago . Buzz has been high on `` Basterds '' since Tarantino announced the project several years ago . `` Taking Woodstock , '' the new film by `` Brokeback Mountain '' director Lee , is based on the book by Elliot Tiber , whose hotelier parents owned a musical festival permit in Bethel , New York , where Woodstock was held . The cast includes Liev Schreiber , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Emile Hirsch , Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur , on whose farm the festival was finally held . Other films in competition include Lars von Trier 's `` Antichrist , '' Jane Campion 's `` Bright Star '' and Pedro Almodovar 's `` Broken Embraces . '' Gallery : Some of Cannes ' recent winners » . But this year 's Cannes festival is attracting plenty of attention for its out-of-competition films as well . The festival is opening with `` Up , '' the latest animated work from Pixar . `` That sort of breaks convention to open with what is , basically , a fancy cartoon , '' Rozen said . Also at Cannes will be Heath Ledger 's last film , `` The Imaginarium of Dr . Parnassus . '' The Oscar-winning `` Dark Knight '' actor died during the making of the Terry Gilliam film ; Gilliam managed to complete it by doing some rewriting and casting other actors -- including Jude Law , Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp -- to play Ledger 's part . Despite the interest in seeing Ledger , the film is still struggling to find a buyer , though Entertainment Weekly recently reported that a Los Angeles screening went over well . Cannes , which also functions as a huge film marketplace , may widen the net in attracting distributors . But much of the fun from Cannes comes from the films that emerge from nowhere . Recent winners of the Palme d'Or include 2000 's `` Dancer in the Dark , '' which established singer Bjork as an actress , and `` 4 Months , 3 Weeks and 2 Days , '' a Romanian film that ended up topping many critics ' lists in 2007 . `` One thing that always surprises me is that some of the films you have the lowest expectations for turn out to be terrific , and sometimes the bigger films turn out to be disappointments , '' Rozen said .
Quentin Tarantino 's new film , `` Inglourious Basterds , '' playing Cannes . The movie is about a group of soldiers who are sent to the French Resistance during World War II and their adventures in occupied France. Pixar 's `` Up '' to open famed French festival , which begins Wednesday .