1946 Cannes Film Festival
The 1st annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 20 September to 5 October 1946. Twenty-one countries presented their films at the "First Cannes International Film Festival", which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. Only one year after the end of World War II, most of the films were about the war. There arose several technical issues, such as the tarpauline cover blowing away in a storm on the day before the winners were to be announced, the reels of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious shown in reverse order, and Miguel M. Delgado’s The Three Musketeers projected upside-down. During the first festival, the jury was made up of one representative per country, with French historian Georges Huisman as the Jury President. With more emphasis on creativity than in competitiveness, eighteen nations presented their films. Eleven of them tied for the first Grand Prix of the International Festival. The following people were appointed as the Jury for the feature and short films: Georges Huisman (France) (historian) Jury President Iris Barry (USA) Beaulieu (Canada) Antonin Brousil (Czechoslovakia) J.H.J. De Jong (Netherlands) Don Tudor (Romania) Samuel Findlater (UK) Sergei Gerasimov (Soviet Union) Jan Korngold (Poland) Domingos Mascarenhas (Portugal) Hugo Mauerhofer (Switzerland) Filippo Mennini (Italy) Moltke-Hansen (Norway) Fernand Rigot (Belgium) Kjell Stromberg (Sweden) Rodolfo Usigli (Mexico) Youssef Wahby (Egypt) Helge Wamberg (Denmark) The following films competed for the Grand Prix: The Adventurous Bachelor by Otakar Vávra Anna and the King of Siam by John Cromwell The Bandit by Alberto Lattuada The Battle of the Rails by René Clément Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau Blood and Fire by Anders Henrikson Brief Encounter by David Lean Caesar and Cleopatra by Gabriel Pascal Camões by José Leitão de Barros The Captive Heart by Basil Dearden Dunia by Mohammed Karim The Queen's Flower by Paul Călinescu Gaslight by George Cukor Gilda by Charles Vidor Un giorno nella vita by Alessandro Blasetti Girl No.
