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 known to have 'banned' selfies on the Red Carpet of the world's largest Film Festival back in 2015. In 2017, along with the 70th anniversary events of the Festival, the issue of changing the rules on theatrical screening caused controversy. The enforcement of theatrical screening in 2018 resulted in Netflix being banned. The Cannes Film Festival is organised in various sections: The President of the Festival, who represents the Festival in front of its financial partners, the public authorities and the media, is elected by the board of directors of the Festival, officially named the "French Association of the Film