Cannes Film Festival Emerges To Match The Venice Film Festival That The Nazis Ridden

Illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Today 74 years ago, the Cannes Film Festival, which is in French, Le Festival International du Film de Cannes, was held for the first time. The appearance of one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, possibly to match the Venice Film Festival that was ridden by the Nazi fascists.

The event was held for the first time from September 20 to October 5, 1946 in the city of Cannes, southern France, as quoted by History. Since then events have been held annually in May at the Palais des Festivals et des Congres.

The wide reach of mass media coverage at that time made the festival attended by many film stars. The event then transformed into a popular event for film entrepreneurs to launch the latest films, then sell them to distributors from around the world.

One of the most prestigious awards given at Cannes is the Palme d'Or or Golden Palm for the best film category. Sometimes the award is shared with several films in one year.

Some of the awards at this prestigious event include the grand prix for the second prestigious award. Then Prix du Jury (jury assessment), Palme d'Or du court métrage (best short film), Prix d'interpretation feminine (best actress), Prix d'interpretation masculine (best actor), Prix de la mise en scene (director best) and Prix du scenario (best screenwriter).

Its history

Actually the Cannes Film Festival was scheduled to debut in September 1939. However, the outbreak of World War II canceled it.

The world's first annual international film festival was established in Venice in 1932. Then in 1938, the Venice Film Festival had become a vehicle for Fascist and Nazi propaganda, as quoted by History. At that time the Italian leader Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler of Germany dictated the choice of films and shared gifts only from among themselves.

Seeing this, France was furious and decided to organize a rival film festival. And the Cannes Film Festival was born, which could only take place after World War II was over.

A year later, in 1947 the festival was held with the title "Festival du film de Cannes". Only films from sixteen countries were presented - 5 less than the previous title.

The festival went on hiatus in 1948 and 1950 due to budget issues. However, the event was held again a year later. That year the festival was finally moved to spring to avoid direct competition with the Venice Film Festival which takes place in the fall.