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
1947 Cannes Film Festival The following films and people received the 1947 awards: Feature Films Short Films 1947 Cannes Film Festival The 2nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 25 September 1947. The new building that was meant to host the festival, the Palais du Festival, was still not ready, and the festival was held amid many technical and financial problems. In 1947, the entire jury of the Festival were French. Six awards were given to films of different categories. The following persons were selected as the jury for the feature and short films: The following feature films competed for the Grand