Pitt, who is expecting his first child with Angelina Jolie sent an email to the Cannes Film Festival explaining his absence.

‘With the imminent arrival of the newest addition to our family, I am unable to join Alejandro, Cate, Gael and the rest of the cast and crew in introducing Babel,’ Pitt said in his letter.

Though he was not in Cannes in person, his presence was more than felt, especially during the press conference when Cate Blanchett summed up her working relationship with Brad Pitt warmly.

‘It’s like chocolate. He's glorious and wonderful. We've been wanting to work with one another for a long time and to work together in quite an unexpected way and for Brad to be doing something for an audience, and Alejandro, it was intensely riveting,’ Blanchett said.

‘The moment for him, which is so beautifully judged in terms of where it's placed in the film but also so exquisitely performed was when he speaks with the children on the phone at the end, I think it's one of the most moving moments in the film,’ Blanchett added.

On ‘Babel,’ Cate Blanchett sees the film not about different languages, but about the connections between parents and children, making it very personal to her because she is a parent also.

‘Being a parent, when you see a child in danger, particularly with an irresponsible nanny, it engages me; it's like pulling the roots of my system out. It's very distressing,’ Blanchett said during a news conference.

For Director Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, he wanted ‘Babel’ to be ‘about what separates us and what brings us together.’ He believes that the different languages created by the collapse of the Tower of Babel according to the biblical story are not reason for miscommunication.

‘I think the problem is the ideas and preconceptions that we have that really keep us apart. That's what the film's about. What makes us the same people living in the world and not what are our differences. Which ones are the similarities and I hope this film communicates that,’ Inarritu said.