Dreamgirls casts spell over Cannes audience

The Da Vinci Code may have fizzled with critics at Cannes, but the second major Hollywood film to sweep into the festival, Dreamgirls, cast a spell over audiences that led to early Oscar buzz. Film studios Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks showed 20 minutes of their film, which is set for a December release, to a standing-room- only crowd late on Friday night at a side venue at the world's largest gathering of movie-makers and stars.

US pop singer Beyonce Knowles and Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx, who star in Dreamgirls, were on hand, as were major celebrities like Bruce Willis, Hugh Jackman and Britain's Sir Ian McKellen.

Shouts of "more" echoed round the room after the four brief scenes were shown - the first ever screening of the clips - and when Foxx addressed the crowd, Oscar whispers filled the air.

"They talk about the Oscar curse. I don't feel it right now," Foxx said to rousing applause.

The Oscars are the film industry's top honours given out each year by the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Foxx won the best actor honour for playing singer Ray Charles in 2004's Ray, and as he noted it is rare for an actor to win a second Academy Award.

Dreamgirls is based on the hit Broadway show about three black American singers and their manager who rise to stardom in the 1960s. The story reminds audiences of singers like Diana Ross and The Supremes, but Dreamgirls is a fictional film.

Knowles plays the trio's lead singer, and Foxx is their manager. Newcomers Anika Noni Rose and Jennifer Hudson, who won fame on US talent show American Idol, round out the group.

"It's a dream come true," Hudson said of her Cannes debut.

Knowles, who has appeared in a handful of smaller comedy roles, said the film was her first major test as an actress.

"This was my first role," she told Reuters. "This was really my debut as an actress. It was the first role where I had to show that I can do the dramatic scenes and that I can play a character with range." Dreamgirls will not be seen by audiences until this coming holiday season when Hollywood traditionally rolls out its big-budget titles to compete for Oscars, and its producer Laurence Mark acknowledged it has a long way to go before it can win the hearts of global audiences and Oscar voters.