May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Che Guevara, Clint Eastwood and Indiana Jones are three alpha males snaring the spotlight at the 61st Cannes Film Festival, which starts today.

Argentine revolutionary Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara is the focus of Steven Soderbergh's ``Che,'' starring Benicio Del Toro, a 4 1/2-hour contender for the top Cannes prize, or Palme d'Or.

``Che'' will compete with 21 other titles, including Clint Eastwood's ``The Exchange,'' starring Angelina Jolie, the true story of a 1920s Los Angeles mom whose son is kidnapped. Her happiness at the boy's recovery soon turns to despair when she discovers the child returned is not her son.

On the fringes of the competition, though at the center of attention, ``Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' marks the return of Steven Spielberg's intrepid hero after a 19- year absence. Starring Harrison Ford and set in Peru at the height of the Cold War, the film pits the ill-shaven hero against an elite Soviet unit whose ringleader -- Cate Blanchett -- wants the crystal skull to secure the Soviet Union's global domination.

``Harrison called me and said, `Why don't we make another one of these pictures? There's a fan base out there that wants it,''' said Spielberg on the film's Web site. ``Harrison is at home in the skin of Indiana Jones.''

The festival opens tonight with ``Blindness'' directed by Fernando Meirelles (who shot ``The Constant Gardener''). Adapted from a novel by Nobel prizewinner Jose Saramago, the film -- starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal -- tells the tale of a doctor's wife who becomes the only person in her town not to lose her eyesight.

Judge Penn

Almost five dozen full-length movies from more than 30 countries will screen at the 11-day festival, with 22 in competition for the Palme d'Or. The nine judges are headed by actor-director Sean Penn, winner of the Cannes best-actor award in 1997, and include actress Natalie Portman, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, and Iranian graphic author Marjane Satrapi, who wrote and co-directed ``Persepolis.''

Among other big-name auteurs present is Germany's Wim Wenders -- a two-time Palme d'Or winner -- with ``Palermo Shooting,'' the tale of a star photographer who moves to Sicily to get away from it all, meets a woman and is chased by a shooter.

Woody Allen casts Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz in ``Vicky Cristina Barcelona,'' which is not in the competition. A painter meets two young American women holidaying in Spain and sparks the anger of his high-strung ex-wife.

The festival, first held in 1946, is the world's most extensive cinematic event. It lures more than 3,500 journalists to the Mediterranean resort each year, and untold numbers of producers, financiers, publicists, and wannabes.

Beach Starlets

For years during the festival, Cannes beaches teemed with starlets who flung off their tops in their quest for fast fame. Today, the starlets go after tickets to late-night parties held on boats or beaches. The more successful ones go up the red carpet to the screenings in long slit gowns, parading before clumps of squealing fans. The beaches now are covered with tepee-like tents representing film-producing countries.

Cannes is often torn between living up to its reputation as a scout for serious auteurs, and drawing the publicity and business that big-name Hollywood productions can bring.

This year's festival is not short of stars. Gwyneth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix and Isabella Rossellini act in writer-director James Gray's ``Two Lovers,'' a romantic feature set in Brooklyn, New York, about a bachelor who prefers his unpredictable neighbor to the nice girl his parents would like him to marry.

Soccer legend Diego Maradona is the focus of a documentary by filmmaker Emir Kusturica. Roman Polanski and the events leading up to his departure from the U.S. are surveyed in Marina Zenovich's ``Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.''

And for the wannabes? There's always Quentin Tarantino's moviemaking masterclass on May 22.

To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Nayeri in London farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 13, 2008 20:56 EDT