This year's Festival de Cannes will he held May 17 though May 28.

Attending the Festival

Unless you are an accredited professional in the film industry (or member of the press) entrance to screenings and official venues will be closed to you.  These events are strictly guarded, and hotels reserve their accommodations for the thousands of film critics, actors, directors and other experts in the industry.  As a basic tourist, the most you can do is watch from the sidelines, but what a view and great entertainment!  Between star-gazing at movie stars and strolling Cannes' beautiful beaches, the festival is sure to delight as a sight-seeing experience.

For those who simply must see a film at the festival, there are a few organizations that allocate a small number of tickets to the public (the International Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight sidebars). Educational groups and French film enthusiasts can also gain some access via the Cannes Cinéphiles programme.  If you are interested, you should contact these organizations at least a year or two in advance to try and claim your spot.  Otherwise, you may be able to catch a Cinéma de la Plage (Film on the Beach), which is a screening category open to the public. Some very eager people will actually dress up and discretely ask for "spare" tickets right in front of the event venue.

A Brief History

In typical French fashion, the Cannes Film Festival actually came about as a result of social rebellion.  Fed up with the fascist European regimes of  the 1930s (who favored political films and propaganda over art), a group of French filmmakers and critics (circa 1938, when Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion" was overlooked for the festival's top prize - known back then as the Coppa Mussolini or "Mussolini Cup" despite it being the obvious favorite) broke free from the obviously biased 'Mostra di Venezia' in Venice and demanded the French government create a separate, non political festival.  Several locations were considered, but in the end Cannes won, mainly because its municipalities agreed to fund the venture. Today, the Cannes Film Festival is the most prestigious international film festival in the world. 

The Palme d'Or

There are several activities and organizations surrounding the Festival de Cannes, but the Compétition is the main event.  Films identified as 'in competition' are vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award for best picture.  This is the most sought after film award in the business.  Winning it often means an instant increase in revenue at the box-office (in the millions of dollars) and for foreign films, it means eventual or immediate international distribution.

The Judges

Prior to each festival, the Board of Directors appoints four juries who are responsible for selecting the films to be screened and ultimately deciding which ones are worthy of an actual award.  Members of each jury are pulled from all areas of the international film community.  The Board considers each candidate's area of expertise, their body of work and the level of respect they receive from their peers. Generally, a spot on a Cannes Film Festival jury is indicative of a 'lifetime achievement', especially when appointing the coveted role of the festival's 'President'.

The President for the 2006 festival is Wong Kar-Wai, a director from China. Wong belongs to the mid-1980s wave of Hong Kong filmmakers, who continued to develop the innovative and fresh aesthetic created by those just before them.  To fully experience the depth of Wong's mindful film creations,  viewers must suspend their beliefs in chronology, time and in many cases, their own memories.

This year's Competition Jury Members are:

Monica Bellucci, an Italian Actress
Helena Bonham Carter, a UK Actress
Lucrecia Martel, an Argentinean Director
Ziya Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese Actress
Samuel L. Jackson, an American Actor
Patrice Leconte, a French Director
Tim Roth, a UK Actor/Director
Elia Suleiman, a Palestinian Director

Films in 2006 Competition

• Babel (Mexico) directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
• El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) (Mexico) directed by Guillermo Del Toro
• Fast Food Nation (USA) directed by Richard Linklater
• Flandres (France) directed by Bruno Dumont
• Iklimler (Turkey) directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
• Il Caimano (Italy) directed by Nanni Moretti
• Indigenes (Algeria) directed by Rachid Bouchareb
• Juventude Em Marcha (Portugal) directed by Pedro Costa
• L'Amico di Famiglia (Italy) directed by Paolo Sorrentino
• La Raison du plus Faible (Belgium) directed by Lucas Belvaux
• Laitakaupungin Valot (Finland) directed by Aki Kaurismaki
• Marie-Antoinette (USA) directed by Sofia Coppola
• Quand j'etais chanteur (France) directed by Xavier Giannoli
• Red Road (UK) directed by Andrea Arnold
• Selon Charlie (France) directed by Nicole Garcia
• Southland Tales (USA) directed by Richard Kelly
• Summer Palace (China) directed by Lou Ye
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley (UK) directed by Ken Loach
• Volver (Spain) directed by Pedro Almodovar.

Also to be noted, the 2006 festival will open with the screening ("out of competition") of the long awaited "The Da Vinci Code" (by Ron Howard) on May 17th 2006.

For more information on the Festival de Cannes, please visit Official Cannes Film Festival.  For more information on Cannes, please visit French Riviera: Cannes or our "Cannes Film Festival image gallery".