WHAT IS THE WORLD FAMOUS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL?
Le Festival de Cannes, with its French name, is an annual film festival held in the city of Cannes in the south of France. The most important award of this festival, which is usually held in May and attended by many world-famous directors, is the Palme d’Or. Cannes, one of the biggest film festivals organized in the European continent, examines approximately 20 international films in various branches every year, evaluates them with a predetermined jury president and the accompanying committee, and then awards the Palme d’Or. In order to be a jury, it is necessary to be one of the leading figures of the sector, who received the best comments at the festival held last year. In addition, side awards such as Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Director are given at the festival. The biggest feature that makes the Cannes Film Festival so important all over the world; This is due to the fact that it has an international status and concerns almost everyone in the sector. Unlike the Berlin Film Festival held in Germany, the fact that it appeals to all styles rather than works in a single category is the biggest factor that distinguishes the Cannes Festival from the others.
How Did the Cannes Film Festival Come About?
The history of the Cannes Festival, which has a very interesting origin story, dates back to the 1930s. At the request of a university student, Jean Zay, who was the Minister of Fine Arts at the time, requested an organization to compete with the Venice Film Festival, but due to various political problems in those years, the festival could not be organized, but it was always remembered. After the political problems and the war that ended in 1946, the first festival is held from September to 1950. In the following years, holding the Venice Film Festival in the fall decreased the participation in the festival, so it was decided to organize it in May every year since 1952. The Cannes Film Festival wanted to be internationally famous and wanted to rival any film festival held. He achieved this goal after the Venice Film Festival was not held in 1968 and managed to make a name for itself as the festival that attracted the most attention after the Oscar awards around the world.
Cannes Film Festival today
Deciding to make radical changes in the festival in 1970, the delegation first decided to change the conditions of participation in the festival. The festival president of the period, Robert Favre Le Bret, formed two local and foreign delegations to evaluate the participation procedure of the films. This delegation selected the films to participate in the festival and sent invitations. Another important change was that the members of the committee to be the jury of the festival would consist of famous people from the cinema industry and the duration of the festival was reduced to 30 days. The palace, which was built only for the festival in 1983, drew a great reaction from the celebrities, and by calling it a shelter, the festival was given its current official name, Festival de Cannes. Cannes Film Festival, which has become a very important event for European Cinema in time, has succeeded in attracting almost all movie stars to this festival due to the attention of the media. Especially for the producers, this festival, which is a complete advertising space, creates a suitable environment to promote and sell their new films.
