The Festival de Cannes now welcomes over 30,000 accreditees spanning the entire spectrum of the film industry, as well as some 4000 international journalists, making it the biggest and most widely acclaimed film festival in the world.The privileged venue of both film discoveries and encounters, the Festival de Cannes reflects the dual nature of the cinema: art and industry. For if the Festival evokes first and foremost the surprise of being selecting and the hope of winning a prize, it is equally the privileged rendezvous of all motion-picture industry professionals for whom the Marché du Film was first created at the Festival in 1959.
The Festival is equally supportive of artistic and cinematic development throughout the world. Twenty years after the Caméra d’Or, a prize awarded to Best First film, came the Cinéfondation – a programme that made it possible for young filmmakers, at various stages of their creative careers, to step up behind the camera and gain international professional recognition.
The role of the Festival de Cannes has thus grown rich over the course of the years, to the rhythm of the evolution of cinema itself: selecting and promoting films and artists, welcoming professionals, developing new artistic initiatives... ultimately, serving cinema in all its infinite dimensions.
