The Cannes Film Festival is an annual film carnival held in Cannes, a city located on the French Riviera, France. It previews films of all genres from all over the world. Until 2002, the Cannes was called the International Film Festival.
The invitation-only festival is among the top three alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale.
Cannes is pronounced as “can” , like a can of paint. The “s” at the end of “Cannes” is silent. Instead of the “C”, pronouncing “Cannes” correctly would be to assume as if there were a “K” instead of “C”.
The festival runs for about 12 days, and takes place in mid May. This year, Cannes Film Festival is opening on May 14 and will continue till May 25, 2019.
The festival initially came into being in response to the political corruption of the Venice Mostra, the first international competition dedicated to cinema from across the world in 1938.
As films from across the world were screened, on the closing day an American film was unanimously chosen to win. However, under pressure from Hitler, the Nazi propaganda film Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl and the Italian film, Luciano Serra, by Goffredo Alessandrini became prize winners of what was called the Mussolini Cup.
The decision caused dismay amomg representatives of countries like France, the United States and Britain which caused them to leave Mostra and never to return.In order to organize a film festival that ” was free of pressure and constraints” the idea of Cannes Film Festival was first conceived. However, the film festival took place 9 years after its launch on 20th September 1946 after the Second World War came to an end.
Thousands of films are submitted to the festival every year from which about 50 feature films and 30 short films are included in the main body of work i.e. the Official Selection. Many others are shown as opening and closing films and during the ” sidebar” screenings of the Directors’ Fortnight and International Critics’ Week.
India has also had some Cannes moments beginning from as early as 1946, when Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar became one of the winners of the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film award, the festival’s highest honour before it was renamed Palme d’Or in 1955. Then there was Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Nandita Das’s Manto and some more.
This year, no Indian film will screen at the festival’s four main categories-Competition, Un Certain Regard, Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight. There will be Indian films at the Cannes Film Market (Marché du Film), the largest international gathering of film professionals, but none in the main categories.
Mexican filmmaker, known for Birdman, The Revenant and Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu is jury president for Cannes 2019.