1996 Cannes Film Festival Multimedia Day at the 49th Cannes Film festival 1996 Cannes Film Festival The 49th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 May 1996. The Palme d'Or went to "Secrets & Lies" by Mike Leigh. The festival opened with "Ridicule", directed by Patrice Leconte and closed with "Flirting with Disaster", directed by David O. Russell. Sabine Azéma was the mistress of ceremonies. The following people were appointed as the Jury for the feature films of the 1996 Official Selection: The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1996 Camera d'Or: The following feature films competed for 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