The 64th Cannes Film Festival: a celebration of film and famous faces

The Cannes Film Festival, which begins this week (11 - 22 May), is a festival with many faces. Not just the hundreds of famous, beautiful faces that flock there every year to celebrate the rich international film industry; the Cannes Film Festival is unique for its many diverse characteristics.

To coincide with this year's festival and to capture the essence of what makes Cannes, well, Cannes, Phaidon is releasing two new books: Cannes Cinema is a visual history of the Festival, from its roots in the late 1930s to the present day, and charts the glamour and beauty of its stars. Citizen Cannes is the autobiography of Gilles Jacob, a driving force behind the festival and who was made Director General of the Festival in 1978 and President in 2000. This is a rare insight into the festival from its most loved veteran; the book is an indispensable record of one of the masterminds behind the Festival, who molded the reputation for excellence that it upholds to this day. 

For Cannes is unashamedly the luxurious capital of the French Riviera. This town, drenched in the natural gifts of its Mediterranean coastline, oozes a French sophistication specific to this corner of Europe.

Also thought of as a mini-Hollywood, Cannes is a second home to America's - and the world's - film industry, for those who make the annual pilgrimage to this French resort town. It is impossible to think of Cannes without recalling the many famous faces of cinematic history who have graced its red carpet, the impossible glamour that the film industry brings to this town.

Let's not forget the films either - for Cannes, ever since the Festival's debut in 1946, has also (and most importantly) been shaped by the ongoing contributions it pays to the art of film in all its many forms. Cannes is responsible for transforming its actors, directors and producers into gods and goddesses.

All of these diverse yet complimentary faces of Cannes - the southern French sophistication, the Hollywood glamour and the dedication to film - have made its annual Film Festival (now in its 64th year) so unique and dear to the international film industry, who consider it the most prestigious and authoritarian voice on high quality art cinema from around the world.

This international appeal of Cannes Film Festival extends from its inclusion of many genres of film, from first films to short films, unknown world cinema to the heritage 'Cannes Classics' films that are dusted off and shown every year. 'The festival is an apolitical no-man's land, a microcosm of what the world would be like if people could make direct contact with one another and speak the same language,' said Jean Cocteau, director, poet and Honorary President of the Jury.

This year's festival, held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, will be opened by Woody Allen's new film Midnight in Paris, and closed by Christophe Honoré's The Beloved. The Jury, which is composed of elite film professionals and veterans, is presided this year by American actor, director and producer Robert De Niro. The Jury picks one film from the Official Selection of 20 films to be honoured with the coveted Palme d'Or prize, which will be announced 22 May. 

Jennifer Bayne