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
1973 Cannes Film Festival 1973 Cannes Film Festival The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to "The Hireling" by Alan Bridges and "Scarecrow" by Jerry Schatzberg. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français' (which is started by the French Film Directors' Society and runs until 1991). The festival opened with "Godspell", directed by David Greene and closed with "Lady Sings the Blues", directed by Sidney J. Furie. "Swastika", a documentary by Philippe Mora, got negative reactions and caused disturbance