Hanks with wife Rita Wilson at Cannes. (Reuters)

Cannes, May 20 (Reuters): Oscar winner Tom Hanks has said the Cannes film festival scares off some directors who are afraid of a poor reception, but as far as he was concerned it was one giant perk.

“It beats absolutely everything. It’s sunglasses and paparazzi and red carpets and screenings at night and it’s a blast,” Hanks said in an interview at the French Riviera resort.

The Forrest Gump star is attending the world’s top film festival for the first time in a career stretching almost 25 years.

He plays the larger-than-life Professor Dorr in Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of The Ladykillers, about a group of hapless criminals who meet their match in a little old lady. The film is one of 19 competing for the Palme d’Or best film award.

With 5,000 showbusiness reporters in attendance, the festival can make or break the reputation of a film. Risk-averse Hollywood studios are only just beginning to view it as a launching pad for their summer blockbuster releases.

“This concept of the game of the competition that all films are in, it scares away an awful lot of people,” said Hanks.

“I’ve had films that they’ve thought about maybe trying to get in competition in Cannes, but then withdrawing it because they’re afraid of this kind of thumbs down, or thumbs up aspect of the gladiatorial contest that goes on,” he said.

“I think it’s great, I think that everybody does that anyway. They either love the movie or they hate it or they greet it with kind of like a tepid response,” he said.

The Ladykillers has had mixed reviews in the US but was warmly received at Can- nes, where the Coen brothers have become an almost annual fixture.

Striding up the red carpet with his wife Rita Wilson on Tuesday night, Hanks turned the tables on the press pack, motioning to photographers to smile as his wife took a souvenir snap.

Earlier, the affable actor had delighted reporters at a news conference with a stream of self-deprecating jokes. He said he was not worried about walking away with the best actor prize.

“I’m just having fun here. Not only am I having fun but somebody else is paying for it, that’s the key. I have a very lovely hotel room and they provide me with a boat every morning and I don’t have to pay a dime so, hey man, I’m on a busman’s holiday.”