Ananova:

Tom Hanks has attended the premiere of The Da Vinci Code at the Cannes Film Festival.

The controversial film opened the 59th film festival.

Hanks was joined by his co-stars Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Paul Bettany and Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.

Director Ron Howard dismissed criticisms of the film he said:"I stopped prognosticating a long time ago."

The Da Vinci Code is among the films showing out of competition at the event, alongside X-Men sequel The Last Stand and United 93 reports BBC online.

The festival culminates in the presentation of the Palme d'Or prize, with two British directors, Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold, up for the award.