Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival) 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 at all in 1948 and 1950, while in 1968 no awards were given as the
1949 Cannes Film Festival 1949 Cannes Film Festival The 3rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 2 to 17 September 1949. The previous year, no festival had been held because of financial problems. Like in 1947, the entire jury for this festival was made up of French persons, with historian Georges Huisman as President of the Jury. The "Grand Prix du Festival de Cannes" went to "The Third Man" by Carol Reed. The festival opened with "L'Arroseur Arrosé" by Louis Lumière, an 1895 French comedy short-film, paying tribute to cinema's first comedy film. The following persons were selected as the jury for the feature