Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)

The price for best director ( Prix de la mise en scène ) honored at the annually organized film festivals of Cannes, the best performance of a director or a director in a competition movie ( feature film ). The award was first awarded at the premiere of the film festival in 1946. The awarding of the prize, which is awarded to the winner in the form of a deed, agrees the competition jury, usually composed of international filmmakers.

Award winners

French directors were most often awarded the Director's Award (12 wins) won, followed by their counterparts from the United States ( 11), the former Soviet Union (6), the United Kingdom and Mexico (3 each). Able to triumph three times the American Joel Coen ( 1991, 1996 and 2001), followed by the two Frenchmen René Clément (1946 and 1949 ) and Robert Bresson (1957 and 1983 ), the Soviet director Sergei Jutkewitsch (1956 and 1966 ) and the Briton John Boorman (1970 and 1998 ) with two victories.

Multiple in the past, the jury could not agree on a winner. Directors from the German cinema were 1982 and 1987 successfully, when Werner Herzog ( Fitzcarraldo ) and Wim Wenders could prevail ( Wings of Desire ) against the competition.

In the past, juries had the opportunity to combine the best director award with other awards. This happened most recently in 1993, when the British contribution nude was awarded the Best Actor Award for lead actor and David Thewlis. Meanwhile prohibited the regulations that the Director's Award (as well as the Palme d'Or and the Grand Jury Prize ) can be combined with other awards. This fact has been repeatedly criticized, most recently in 2012, when the jury president Nanni Moretti admitted in the final press conference that he would have given the Golden Palm winner Love by Michael Haneke without regulations also awarded the Best Actor and Screenplay Award.