The Cannes Film Festival

The 62nd Cannes Film Festival was opened Wednesday night by the singer Charles Aznavour and the actress Hafsia Herzi in a ceremony honoring the team behind the new Pixar film “Up,” which opened the festival.

Before the film, the Festival’s Jury President, Isabelle Huppert, dressed in a champagne-colored Armani gown embroidered with organza flowers and black glass beading, paid homage to great film directors.

“In telling us who they are, directors also tell us who we are, and perhaps who we will be. They tell us, and they convince us, thanks to their obstinacy, their freedom, their imagination, their intelligence and their insanity,” she said.

The opening ceremony at the Lumière du Palais des Festivals was preceded by the traditional Cannes red carpet, laid out over the 26 steps leading to the theatre. Isabelle Huppert was accompanied by eight Jury members as she made her way past the photographers, including Robin Wright Penn, Asia Argento, and the director James Gray. Also on hand for the opening ceremony were French actors Jean Rochefort and Elsa Zylberstein, Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai and Brit Tilda Swinton.

The French Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, said she anticipated being moved by the works of such great European auteurs as the Danish Lars von Trier and Frenchman Alain Resnais.

But on opening night, it was all about “Up,” a Pixar film with French creators, and the first animated feature to open the legendary Cannes Film Festival.