1955 Cannes Film Festival 1955 Cannes Film Festival The 8th Cannes Film Festival was held from 26 April to 10 May 1955. The Golden Palm went to the US film "Marty" by Delbert Mann. The festival opened with "Du rififi chez les hommes" by Jules Dassin and closed with "Carmen Jones" by Otto Preminger. Until the 1954 Festival, the whimsical way various prizes were being awarded had drawn much criticism. In answer to this, from 1955 onwards, the Jury was composed of foreign celebrities from the film industry. In 1955, the first Palme d'Or was awarded, as the highest prize of the Festival. The
Cannes Film Festival origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which at the time was shocking the democratic world by its fascist bias. The first festival was planned for 1939, Cannes was selected as the location for it, but the funding and organization were too slow and finally the beginning of World War II put an end to this plan. On 20 September 1946, twenty-one countries presented their films at the First Cannes International Film Festival, which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. In 1947, amid serious problems of efficiency, the