Cannes Film Festival

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The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival international du film de Cannes or simply le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1939, is widely considered to be the world's most prestigious film festival (leader of the "Big Five" festivals which also includes Venice, Berlin, Sundance, and Toronto).

In May 2006, Hollywood Reporter acknowledged that Cannes is the "granddaddy of all film festivals" (although the oldest film festival in the World, beginning in 1932, is the Venice Film Festival).

The private festival is held annually (usually in the month of May) in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.

History

At the end of the year 1938, shocked by the interference of the fascist governments of Germany and Italy in the selection of films for the Mostra de Venise, Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, decided, on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger, to create an international cinematographic festival in Cannes. In June 1939, Louis Lumière agreed to be the president of the first festival, set to begin on September 1, 1939. The declaration of war against Germany by France and the United Kingdom on September 3, 1939, however, postponed the festival's premiere.

The festival was relaunched in 1946 and held from September 20, 1946 to October 5, 1946 in the old casino in Cannes.

The festival was not held in 1948 or 1950 on account of budgetary problems. In 1949 the Palais des Festivals was inaugurated. The original Palais was replaced by a new one in 1983.

The 1968 festival was halted on May 19, 1968. The day before, Louis Malle (president of the jury), François Truffaut, Claude Berri, Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, Claude Lelouch, Roman Polański and Jean-Luc Godard took over the large room of the Palais and interrupted the projection of film in solidarity with students and labor on strike throughout France.

At the 25th Cannes International Film Festival, in 1971, Charlie Chaplin was awarded the Legion of Honor by French Minister of Culture M. Jacques Duhamel, and a dozen directors were honored by the festival, including Orson Welles (who was not present), Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, William Wyler, Rene Clement, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Lindsay Anderson, Vojtech Jasny, Masaki Kobayashi and Robert Bresson.^[1]

The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. The Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai was the president of the jury for feature films. He was also the first Chinese president in the Festival's history. Wong Kar-Wai won the Best Director award in 1997 for the film Happy Together.

Impact

The festival has become an important showcase for European films. Jill Forbes and Sarah Street argue in European Cinema: An Introduction, that Cannes "became...extremely important for critical and commercial interests and for European attempts to sell films on the basis of their artistic quality" (page 20).^[2] Forbes and Street also point out that, along with other festivals such as Venice and Berlin, Cannes offers an opportunity to determine a particular country's image of its cinema and generally foster the notion that European cinema is "art" cinema.^[2]

Additionally, given massive media exposure, the non-public festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the globe.

Awards

The most prestigious award given out at Cannes is the Palme d'Or ("Golden Palm") for the best film. The jury of the festival, made of a small international selection of movie professionals, grants other awards, including the Grand Prix ("Grand Prize") — the second most prestigious award.

Feature films

• Palme d'Or - Golden Palm
• Grand Prix du Festival International du Film - Grand Prize of the Festival (1946-1954)
• Prix de la mise en scène - Best Director
• Prix du Jury - Jury Prize
• La Caméra d'Or - Best first film
• Prix du meilleur scénario - Best Screenplay
• Prix d'interprétation féminine du Festival de Cannes - Best Actress
• Prix d'interprétation masculine du Festival de Cannes - Best Actor
• Prix un certain regard - Un Certain Regard Award
• Prix de la FIPRESCI - International Federation of Film Critics Prize

Short films

• Palme d'Or du Festival de Cannes - court métrage
• Prix du Jury - court métrage

Cannes portrayed on film

• Evening in Byzantium (1978). The film festival is overtaken by terrorists. Directed by Jerry London and starring Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert. From a novel by Irwin Shaw.
• Almost Perfect Affair (1979). A romantic comedy about an affair between a filmmaker and a producer's wife, set during the film festival. Starring Keith Carradine.
• La Cité de la peur (1994). Comedy. Directed by Alain Berberian. Starring Alain Chabat, Chantal Lauby, Gérard Darmon.
• Grosse Fatigue (1994). Comedy.
• Festival in Cannes (2001). Entertainment industry farce about filmmakers trying to make deals during the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Henry Jaglom and starring Greta Scacchi, Maximilian Schell and Ron Silver.
• Femme Fatale (2002). After pulling off a risky heist during the Cannes Film Festival, Laure double-crosses her partners and tries to disappear by assuming the identity of a dead woman. Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Rebecca Romijn and Antonio Banderas.
• Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007). Mr. Bean is accused of kidnapping one of the judges's son and travels to the film festival to return him to his father, but ends up cutting of the video of one of the films and instead showing clips from his film which match the voice-over. This earns the film a standing ovation. Starring Rowan Atkinson.

See also

• Directors' Fortnight

References

1. ^ http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid26744.aspx
2. ^ ^{a b} Forbes, Jill; Street, Sarah (2001). European Cinema: An Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-75210-4. 

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