Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival Introduction 

The Cannes Film Festival, often known as the International Film Festival up until 2003, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, that showcases brand-new movies of all genres, including documentaries. The invitation-only event was established in 1946 and occurs yearly (often in May) in the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. In 1951, the FIAPF formally recognized the festival.

Co-founder and former CEO of French pay-TV provider Canal+, Pierre Lescure, assumed the role of Festival President on July 1, 2014, while Thierry Frémaux was named General Delegate. Gilles Jacob was additionally named Honorary President of the Festival by the board of directors.

It is one of the "Big Three" significant European film festivals, along with the Venice Film Festival in Italy and the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. It is also one of the "Big Five" significant international film festivals, which also includes the Sundance Film Festival in the United States and the three significant European festivals.

Table Of Contents

• Details

• History

• Administration

• Jury

• Awards Categories

• 75th Cannes Film Festival (2022)

• Indian Celebrities at Cannes Film Festival

• Controversies

• Impact

Details

 History

The Cannes Film Festival was established in 1938 at the suggestion of high-ranking official and historian Philippe Erlanger and film journalist Robert Favre Le Bret. Jean Zay was the French Minister of National Education at the time. The Americans and the British helped them out. Its creation can be largely attributed to the French ambition to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which was the sole international film festival at the time and had displayed a lack of impartiality with its fascist tilt throughout those years. Political meddling was apparent in the 1937 competition when Benito Mussolini intervened to prevent the French pacifist film La Grande Illusion from winning.

The final straw came in the 1938 competition when Mussolini and Adolf Hitler overruled the jury's decision to award the Coppa Mussolini (Mussolini Cup) for the Best Foreign Film to Olympia and the Coppa Mussolini for the Best Film to Italian war film Luciano Serra, Pilot, produced under the supervision of Mussolini's son. Olympia was a German documentary film about the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics produced in collaboration with the Nazi Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, even though the rules at the time denied giving a documentary a prize.

The French, British, and American jury members decided to leave the festival never to return because they were outraged by choice and as a show of protest. The French were inspired to start a free festival by this slight. As a result, on May 31, 1939, Cannes, rather than Biarritz, was chosen as the festival's location. The town council and the French government then officially registered the festival under the name Le Festival International du Film.

The French Riviera resort town of Cannes appealed to tourists, and the city hall also proposed to raise the municipality's financial participation, including the commitment to develop a specific facility for the event. These factors led to the selection of Cannes. Louis Lumière intended to serve as the honorary president of the first edition, scheduled to take place from September 1 through September 20, 1939, at an auditorium at the Municipal Casino. Its stated objectives were to "encouraging the development of all forms of cinematographic art and foster a spirit of collaboration between film-producing countries."

Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mae West, Norma Shearer, Paul Muni, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, and George Raft were among the Hollywood luminaries that arrived on an Ocean liner that MGM had chartered (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). The American film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, directed by William Dieterle and starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, was privately screened as part of the opening night gala on August 31. On September 1, the following day, German forces invaded Poland. The celebration was delayed for ten days and would be resumed if the situation permitted it. 

PlayThe Second World War began on September 3 when France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany because the situation only worsened. The festival was ultimately canceled because the French government issued an order for a general mobilization, making it impossible for it to continue.

Twenty-one nations screened their pictures during the First Cannes International Film Event, which was held at the former Casino de Cannes from September 20 to October 5, 1946, when the festival was reinstituted. The festival was first conducted as the "Festival du film de Cannes" in 1947, despite significant efficiency issues, and featured films from sixteen different nations. Due to financial constraints, the event was postponed in 1948 and 1950.

The Palais des Festivals, built specifically for the occasion in 1949 on the La Croisette coastal promenade, saw its first roof blow off in a storm while it was still being finished. To avoid direct conflict with the Venice Festival, which was held in the fall, the festival was shifted to spring in 1951.

In the most recent ceremony, which took place in 2022, the festival refused press credentials to Russian journalists working for publications that support the continuing war in Russia and Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, made a video appearance on the festival's opening night and spoke about the conflict and the film's role in it.

Administration

The festival's board of directors, officially known as the "French Association of the Film Festival," elects the President of the Festival, who represents the Festival before financial partners, public officials, and the media. The Board is made up of both official bodies that support the event and leaders in the film industry. The board of directors approves the appointment of the General Delegate by the President, who has a three-year renewable term in office. Sometimes a President serves his final term as the Festival's Honorary President.

The management of the events falls under the purview of the General Delegate. Two new posts were formed in 2001 to replace Gilles Jacob's General Delegate and President roles. The General Director was in charge of making sure the event ran well, and the Artistic Director was in charge of choosing the films. But in 2007, the festival's artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, once more assumed the role of general delegate. The general secretary is in charge of receiving work and handling other practical issues.

Jury

The jury panels are selected by the Festival's board of directors in advance of each event and are solely responsible for selecting which films will earn a Cannes award. A large variety of worldwide artists serve as jurors, who are selected based on their body of work and reputation among their peers. The Festival's board of directors must approve various annual management suggestions given in the fall before the President of the Jury may be chosen.

• Feature Films: The awards for the competing feature films are decided by an international jury that consists of a President and other cinema or art figures.

• Cinéfondation and Short Films: Comprised of a President and four movie stars. It recognizes the top three films from the Cinéfondation and the Short Film Palme d'Or.

• Un Certain Regard: Consists of a president, writers, film students, and experts from the industry. In addition to recognizing two other films, it bestows the Un Certain Regard Prize for the best picture.

• Caméra d'Or: Mainly composed of a president, technicians, French and international critics, and film directors. The best movie in each category is given an award.

Each year, the jury convenes at the famed Villa Domergue to choose the winners.

Award Categories

75th Cannes Film Festival (2022)

The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival was held from May 17 to May 28, 2022. The festival included a tribute to star Tom Cruise, whose movie Top Gun: Maverick had its festival premiere and where the actor had unexpectedly received an Honorary Palme d'Or prize. The Truman Show was honored in the design of the festival's official poster (1998). After the last two events were cancelled owing to COVID-19 restrictions in France, the festival was once again able to accommodate all of its attendees.

Indian Celebrities At Cannes Film Festival

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India should be pleased that it has been named the "Country of Honor" at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, which took place in 2022. Deepika Padukone, a famous Bollywood actress, was also on the jury that year. Numerous Indian celebs made their presence known at the festival, including Helly Shah, Pooja Hegde, Aishwarya Rai, Hina Khan, Tamannaah Bhatia, AR Rahman, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Urvashi Rautela, and others. View their looks from the red carpet.

Controversies

Numerous gender and sexual issues have recently plagued the Cannes Film Festival. Some of these incidents include "Heelgate," in which many female attendees of a red carpet premiere in 2015 were barred from entry because they were sporting flat-soled footwear rather than high heels. In a show of support and outrage over the incident, many female celebrities wore flat-soled shoes or no shoes to other red carpet-premieres.

The 2018 Cannes Film Festival announced the establishment of a telephone hotline where victims may report instances of sexual harassment and other crimes as a result of previous sexual scandals and the #MeToo movement that resulted from the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The hotline and the French government work together.

Selfies on the festival's red carpet were allegedly "banned" in 2015 by General Delegate Thierry Frémaux. Along with the Festival's 70th-anniversary celebrations, there was a debate in 2017 around the issue of altering the guidelines for theatrical screenings. Netflix pulled its films from the festival in 2018 because France required theatre screenings.

At least 22 films with their world premieres at Cannes have drawn controversy, including boos and walkouts; some of these films won the festival's top awards. On that list are the films Taxi Driver by Scorsese, Wild at Heart by Lynch, Crash by Cronenberg, Tropical Malady by Weerasethakul, Antichrist by Von Trier, Drive by Refn, The Tree of Life by Malick, and Personal Shopper by Assayas.

Impact

The festival has developed into a crucial platform for European movies. Cannes "became...extremely important for critical and commercial interests and for European attempts to sell films on the basis of their artistic quality," according to Jill Forbes and Sarah Street in European Cinema: An Introduction. Forbes and Street also note that Cannes provides a chance to establish a nation's perception of its cinema and generally promote the idea that European movie is "art" cinema, alongside other festivals like the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.

In addition, thanks to extensive media coverage, many celebrities attend the private festival, which is a well-liked setting for movie producers to introduce their newest productions and try to land deals with distributors worldwide.