Cannes tribute for Woodward and Newman

Paris - The 66th Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, who starred in many films together, including The Long, Hot Summer, which won Newman a best actor award at the festival 55 years ago.

On Thursday, Cannes President Gilles Jacob announced this year's nominees for the festival standing beneath a photo of the married couple taken during their filming of A New Kind of Love in 1963.

The festival said the image is an opportunity "both to pay tribute to the memory of Paul Newman, who passed away in 2008, and to mark its undying admiration for Joanne Woodward, his wife and most favoured co-star."

It said, "The vision of these two lovers caught in a vertiginous embrace, oblivious of the world around them, invites us to experience cinema with all the passion of an everlasting desire."

Last year, to celebrate 65th anniversary, the official Cannes logo featured a demure Marilyn Monroe blowing out a candle on a birthday cake.

The festival, seen as the most prestigious event in cinema, runs on the Riviera from 15 to 26 May.