Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival) for "Barton Fink", and in 2003, when Gus Van Sant won for his film "Elephant". Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival) The Best Director Award () is an annual award presented at the Cannes Film Festival for best directing achievements in a feature film screened as part of festival's official selection (i.e. films selected for the competition program which compete for the festival's main prize Palme d'Or). Awarded by festival's jury, it was first given in 1946. The prize was not awarded on 12 occasions (1947, 1953–54, 1960, 1962–64, 1971, 1973–74, 1977, 1980). In addition, the festival was not held
Cannes Film Festival also been accused of sexual harassment and abuse at past festivals. An accusation of rape involving Harvey Weinstein, allegedly occurred at the Venice festival. As a result of the past sexual controversies and the #MeToo movement that arose out of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, in 2018, Cannes Film Festival officials announced the creation of a telephone hotline during the festival in which victims could report incidents of sexual harassment and other crimes. The hotline is in collaboration with the French government. Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; ), until 2002 called the International Film Festival (') and known in