Protests as Johnny Depp set to walk Cannes red carpet

Protests were building on social media and from French filmmakers on Tuesday ahead of Johnny Depp's red carpet appearance for the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.

Depp is making his movie comeback at the French Riviera festival with his new film "Jeanne du Barry", in which he plays French King Louis XV.

It is his first film since a bitter defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard last year, in which both sides accused each other of domestic abuse.

Depp won the trial but remains a toxic figure for many.

A friend of Heard, journalist Eve Barlow, started a new hashtag on social media -- #CannesYouNot -- criticising the decision to invite him to Cannes.

"Cannes seem proud of their history supporting rapists and abusers," Barlow wrote on Instagram, with pictures of Depp alongside past Cannes regulars such as Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu.

On Monday, festival director Thierry Fremaux said he was not interested in Depp's legal woes, saying: "I am interested in Depp the actor."

A group of 123 French film industry workers also denounced the festival in an article in the Liberation newspaper.

"By rolling out the red carpet to men and women who commit assaults, the festival demonstrates that violence in creative circles can be exercised with complete impunity," they wrote.

They were also targeting the director and lead actress of Depp's new film, Maiwenn, who has admitted to assaulting a journalist in a Paris restaurant earlier this year.

Her victim, journalist Edwy Plenel, says it may have been due to articles about the rape allegations facing Maiwenn's ex-husband, director Luc Besson.

Fremaux addressed criticism of the festival from celebrated French actress Adele Haenel, who last week announced she was quitting film acting due to the industry's "complacency... towards sexual abusers".

"Cannes has a big media impact and is useful for people who want to speak about certain problems," Fremaux said.

"You wouldn't be here... if it was a festival of rapists," he added.

The festival runs until May 27 and features premieres for the new Indiana Jones and Martin Scorsese films, as well as 21 movies competing for the Palme d'Or.