"Barton Fink" premiered in May 1991 at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Beating competition which included Jacques Rivette's "La Belle Noiseuse", Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever", and David Mamet's "Homicide", the Coen brothers' film won three awards: Best Director, Best Actor, and the top prize "Palme d'Or". This sweep of awards in major categories at Cannes was extremely rare, and some critics felt the jury was too generous to the exclusion of other worthy entries. Worried that the triple victory could set a precedent which would undervalue other films, Cannes decided after the 1991 festival to limit each movie to a maximum of two awards.