Palme d'Or

Infobox award
name = Palme d'Or
current_awards =


imagesize = 200px
caption =
description =
presenter = Festival International du Film de Cannes
country = France
location = Cannes
year = 1955
year2 =
website =

The Palme d'Or (English: Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organizing committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. [cite web | title=Awards at Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm | url=http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Cannes_Film_Festival/awards_summary#Golden_Palm | work=The Internet Movie Database | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-05-28] From 1964 to 1974 it was replaced again by the Grand Prix du Festival. [cite web | title=Awards at Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Festival | url=http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Cannes_Film_Festival/awards_summary#Grand_Prize_of_the_Festival | work=The Internet Movie Database | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-05-28]

History of the Palm

Until 1954, the Jury of the Festival de Cannes awarded a "Grand Prix of the International Film Festival" to the best film. The prize was represented by a work by a contemporary artist in vogue, different each year. At the end of 1954, the Festival's Board of Directors invited several jewellers to submit designs for a palm, in tribute to the coat of arms of the City of Cannes. [cite web | author= | title=A Brief History of the Palme d'Or | url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/festivalHistory/goldenpalm.html | publisher=Festival de Cannes | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-05-28]

The original design by the jeweler Lucienne Lazon had the bevelled lower extremity of the stalk forming a heart, and the pedestal a sculpture in terracotta by the artist Sébastien.

In 1955, the first Palme d'Or in the history of the Festival was awarded to Delbert Mann for his film Marty, and was established as the highest award until 1964, when the Festival temporarily resumed awarding a Grand Prix, due to copyright problems with the Palm. In 1975, the Palme d'Or was reintroduced and became again the symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, awarded each and every year since to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition. It was presented in a case of pure red morocco leather, lined with white suede.

Since the reintroduction, the prize has been redesigned a few times. At the beginning of the 1980s, the rounded shape of the pedestal, bearing the Palm, gradually transformed to become pyramidal in 1984. In 1992, Thierry de Bourqueney redesigned the Palm and its pedestal in hand-cut crystal. In 1997, the Palm was again modernised by Caroline Scheufele. The present Palm, made of 24-carat gold, is hand cast into a wax mould, then attached to a cushion of a single piece of cut crystal. It is today presented in a case of blue Morocco leather.

In the almost seventy year history of the festival, a female director has only won the top prize once: Jane Campion in 1993 for "The Piano". Campion won the prize after her previous film, "Sweetie" had been heckled and booed. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5037/is_199305/ai_n18304531 "Revenge is Sweetie: Cannes Film Festival" (director Jane Campion wins Golden Palm award), The Economist (US), May, 1993] ] It has been suggested that "At Cannes, movies don't get booed for being bad -- they get booed for being shocking or transgressive." [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=features2006&content=jump&jump=story&dept=cannes&nav=NCannes&articleid=VR1117944538 "Bizzers befuddled over boo boors..." Variety, By ADAM DAWTREY, BRIAN COCHRANE, 4 June 2006] ] In 2008 films by Lucrecia Martel, Charlie Kaufman and Wim Wenders were booed at the festival. [http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/05/25/martel/index.html "Why the Cannes boo-birds are wrong (as usual)" - Beyond the Multiplex by Andrew O'Hehir - Salon.com, 25 May 2008] ]

Award winners

Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (1939-54)

Palme d'Or (1975-present)

Repeated winners

* Alf Sjöberg (1946, 1951)
* Francis Ford Coppola (1974, 1979)
* Shohei Imamura (1983, 1997)
* Emir Kusturica (1985, 1995)
* Bille August (1988, 1992)
* Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (1999, 2005)

See also

*Golden Lion, the highest prize given at the Venice Film Festival

References

External links

* [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=cannes.htm Palme d'Or Winners] , 1976-Present, by gross box.
* [http://www.festival-cannes.com/palmares/prix.php?langue=6002&categorie=lms All the Palmes d'Or] . [http://www.festival-cannes.com/ Festival-cannes.com] .
* [http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Cannes_Film_Festival/ Cannes Film Festival] . IMDB.