Pixar’s Up opens the Cannes Film Festival in digital 3-D
On 13 May 2009, Cannes opened with Pixar’s Up, an animated adventure whose elderly hero flies away in a balloon-lifted house. The out-of-competition screening brought digital 3-D animation to the festival’s opening-night spotlight.
An animated opening night
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival opened on 13 May 2009 with Up, Pixar’s tenth feature film. The festival presented it outside the competition, in digital 3-D. Cannes described the occasion as the first time a 3-D animated film had served as its opening feature. That precise description is more useful than treating it as a prize: an opening-night presentation is a prominent programming choice, but it does not mean the film won the Palme d’Or. The festival’s same-day report records the occasion.
A home becomes a flying machine
The story follows Carl Fredricksen, a seventy-eight-year-old balloon salesman who attaches thousands of balloons to his house and sets off toward South America. The building carries memories of his life with his wife, Ellie, making the improbable vehicle emotionally important as well as visually striking. Carl also discovers an unexpected companion: eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer Russell. The official film entry identifies these characters and their journey. This is a fictional adventure, not a claim that an ordinary house could safely fly that way.
Simple shapes, substantial feelings
Director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson worked with producer Jonas Rivera on a film combining broad visual invention with themes of loss, companionship and renewed curiosity. Cannes reported their interest in the clarity and directness of earlier animated storytelling. Its appeal depended on recognizable emotions as well as technical novelty. The Disney/Pixar press kit presents the elderly protagonist and energetic child as an unlikely partnership. The contrast gives the adventure its human scale even as its setting becomes fantastical.
More than a single auditorium
The opening ceremonies and the French premiere were also transmitted to audiences in Paris, Rennes, Lyon and Marseille. Charles Aznavour voiced Carl in the French version, connecting the international premiere with French audiences. Michael Giacchino composed the film’s music, credited in the festival record. The opening illustrates how animation could occupy the centre of a major film-culture event while reaching viewers beyond its principal venue. The accompanying artwork imagines an audience watching the balloon-house adventure; it does not reproduce a photograph of the actual screening.
Married Life — Up theme, piano version
The Wild Conductor
The Wild Conductor performs Michael Giacchino’s music from Up, the film screened that evening. This is a later independent piano performance, not the Cannes screening soundtrack recording.
Listen on SoundCloud ↗Follow the evidence.
- Festival de Cannes: Opening with Up, 13 May 2009 ↗
- Festival de Cannes: Up film record ↗
- Disney/Pixar: French Up press kit held by Cannes ↗
- The Wild Conductor: Married Life piano performance ↗
AI-assisted writing, with institutional and primary sources. Illustration is a reconstruction, not an archival photograph. Published October 31, 2026; updated October 31, 2026. Our approach
