The 76th Cannes Film Festival lowered its curtain yesterday and on this occasion, we are offering you a quiz dedicated to the winners of past years. With a simple question: have these films been crowned with the Palme d’Or?
The Cannes Film Festival, which has taken place every year in France in May since 1946, is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious seventh art award ceremonies in the world, in the same way as the Berlin and Venice festivals or the Oscar ceremony. And like each of these cultural events, the history of this institution and in particular the long-awaited presentation of the Palme d’Or has offered us some memorable situations.
In 1987, Maurice Pialat received the Palme d’Or for his film Sous le soleil de Satan, twenty years after the last Frenchman to have received this award (Claude Lelouch for Un homme et une femme). Only, as the director heads to the stage to receive his prize, a few whistles are heard. It does not take more to enrage this filmmaker known for his fiery temperament, and once on stage he will launch his now famous sentence to the room: “If you don’t love me, I can tell you that I don’t love you either”.
Another more recent anecdote, which occurred in 2021 for the coronation of Titanium by director Julia Ducournau. When emcee Doria Tillier onstage speaks to jury president Spike Lee to ask him what the “first” prize awarded (in the sense of “which category”) is, the director of Do the Right Thing stands up and begins to announce, far too soon, the name of the winner of the Palme d’Or, causing laughter and discomfort on stage and in the audience. An incident quickly forgotten, on which the filmmaker will come back later in a press conference again wanting to apologize for this confusion.
It is therefore a quiz devoted to past Palmes d’Or that we are offering to close this fortnight in Cannes. The principle is simple: one image, it’s up to you to tell us if the film that corresponds to it has received the prestigious award or not!