50 Greatest Cannes Moments

Those Medellin Kids

The Moment: Vincent Chase takes his dream project, Medellin , to Cannes but after a disastrous public screening he's forced to sell the rights to Harvey Weingard for a dollar.

Only In Cannes: None of this actually happened (it's a storyline from TV series Entourage ) but even stranger things have taken place at the real-life Cannes Festival…

Boowatch

The Moment: When Pamela Anderson turned up two hours later for a photocall in 2007, she was asking for trouble.

Only In Cannes: The paparazzi responded in true Festival fashion, by booing when she arrived and ensuring she only stuck around for a few minutes.

Beach Ball Of The Dead

The Moment: The annual parade of ghouls, zombies and freaks arranged by low-budget horror studio, Troma.

Only In Cannes: Yes, you read that right. It's annual.

Kelly's Bellyache

The Moment: Southland Tales director Richard Kelly almost doesn't make it to the Festival after U.S. Homeland Security mistakes him for a terrorist.

Only In Cannes: Kelly made it to France… a decision he probably regrets even the dismal reception his film was greeted with.

In Bed With Jean-Paul Gaulthier

The Moment: Could Madonna be promoting doc In Bed With Madonna wearing a demure robe? Nah. Off it comes.

Only In Cannes: Madonna's real choice of outfit - a conical bra designed by Jean-Paul Gaulthier.

False Leeds

The Moment: The Tree Of Life receives its world premiere at the 2011 Festival, but not before hearsay that the film would debut in UK cinemas before going to Cannes.

Only In Cannes: Elitist critics, looking forward to breaking the verdict on Malick's magnum opus, were said to be horrified by the thought that "a single mother from Leeds" might see the film before them.

Culture Vulture

The Moment: The 2006 premiere of Over The Hedge brings stars as diverse as Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne and a live vulture onto the red carpet.

Only In Cannes: The vulture is coaxed into walking the steps to the cinema. Couldn't they have just dropped a mouse onto the top step and had it swoop down for the kill?

Performance As Protest

The Moment: Cannes is no stranger to protest, but it's odd to see a bunch of strangers storm the red carpet to spell out the word 'Negotiation' on their backs.

Only In Cannes: It turned out that the protestors were performance artists outraged by a change to unemployment benefits. Vive Le France!

Cruz Plus Five

The Moment: It's 2006, and Penelope Cruz is a shoo-in for Best Actress for her role in Volver . The Jury gives the prize to "the entire female cast of Volver," forcing Cruz to share with five others.

Only In Cannes: Cannes juries are notorious for doing this. Other actresses who had to make do with a fraction of a prize include the stars of 1998's The Dream Life Of Angels and 1988's A World Apart .

Super Palme

The Moment: For the 50th Festival in 1997, Cannes awards a one-off Palme des Palmes to long-time favourite Ingmar Bergman.

Only In Cannes: Bergman didn't show up to accept the prize.

Opening Hours

The Moment: The 1959 Festival sees the first official Marché du Film, Cannes' business wing for movie wheelers and dealers.

Only In Cannes: Because there are only so many three-hour black 'n' white art-house films you can watch before you need to find some pure Z-grade awfulness that nobody else wants.

Cannes Royalty

The Moment: Grace Kelly, part of the U.S. Delegation to the 1955 Festival, is invited to a photoshoot in Monte Carlo and meets Prince Rainier III.

Only In Cannes: Kelly, quit acting, married the Prince and stayed on the Mediterranean.

Lars vs The Midget

The Moment: Lars Von Trier, hotly tipped for the 1991 Palme D'Or for Europa , has to settle for a shared Jury Prize. He's so aggrieved he calls Jury President Roman Polanski "the midget."

Only In Cannes: Von Trier would be invited back, again and again. Trust us, this isn't his last appearance in this list.

They Are Not Amused

The Moment: Charles and Di's 1987 visit to the Festival provided plenty for the paparazzi, not least the couple's barest disguised disinterest in each other.

Only In Cannes: It probably didn't improve the royal mood that the films in competition included such happy fare as eventual winner Under The Sun Of Satan .

Brunette Bardot

The Moment: In 1953, an unknown 19-year-old brunette called Brigitte Bardot was papped sunbathing on the beach.

Only In Cannes: Of course, the next time she came to Cannes she was a) blonde and b) a mega-star.

Easy Riders

The Moment: Easy Rider stars Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson rock up at the 1969 Festival, acting like goddamned hippies.

Only In Cannes: Hopper won the award for Best First Work, kickstarting the film's era-defining journey.

Balls and (Bicycle) Bells

The Moment: Belgian director Felix van Groeningen leads a posse of naked cyclists through the streets of Cannes at the 2009 Festival.

Only In Cannes: It was a stunt for van Groeningen's film La Merditude Des Choses , not that anybody realised.

Palais-vous francais?

The Moment: Cannes builds a new home for the Festival, with the cavernous Palais des Festivals et des Congrès (aka 'The Bunker') opening in time for the 1983 event.

Only In Cannes: The design brief included the need to have a longer red carpet, with 24 steps leading into the building.

Moore D'Or

The Moment: Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 becomes the first documentary to win the Palme D'Or, sticking it to the Bush administration at a time of tense Franco-American relations.

Only In Cannes: At its official screening, the film got a twenty minute standing ovation, just to rub it in.

It's A Tie!

The Moment: All bets are off, as the Palme D'Or is shared - it happens on average once a decade, although the last time was in 1997 so we're due a split vote.

Only In Cannes: In most circumstances, a jury that couldn't make up its mind would be booted out.

Harvey Weinstein vs Cannes

The Moment: Up-and-coming distributor Harvey Weinstein has a pop at Cannes for elitism, claiming it's a hotbed for "dull, irrelevant films."

Only In Cannes: Weinstein continues to find distinctly non-dull, relevant films at Cannes. This time last year, he purchased the U.S. distribution rights to the then-unknown The Artist . Speaking of which...

Canine Cannes

The Moment: Since 2001, the Palme Dog has honoured the best canine performance in a film showing at the Festival. Past winners include Lucy from Wendy And Lucy , and Dug from Up .

Only In Cannes: After Uggie won the 2011 prize for The Artist , it was only a matter of time before a campaign began to get him into contention for an Oscar nomination. It didn't work, although Uggie did appear on The Graham Norton Show .

Spike Lee vs Wim Wenders

The Moment: Spike Lee doesn't take kindly to missing out on a prize for Do The Right Thing , and threatens bodily harm against 1989 Jury President Wim Wenders: "Somewhere deep in my closet I have a Louisville Slugger bat with Wenders` name on it."

Only In Cannes: If he'd been in America, Lee presumably wouldn't have needed to explain what a Louisville Slugger was.

It's Twins!

The Moment: Jack Black causes a media sensation at the 2008 Festival when he inadvertently announces that his pregnant Kung Fu Panda co-star Angelina Jolie is expecting twins.

Only In Cannes: Black's comment required pundits to sit and work out the sums, which shows how blasé Cannes has become to an event full of people in panda costumes.

Lost Action Hero

The Moment: The launch party for The Last Action Hero goes awry when a giant inflatable Arnold Schwarzenegger deflated on the beach and blew out to sea.

Only In Cannes: Nobody bothered to fetch it; it was still there a week later, just the legs left, looking like Ozymandias.

Wash The Scum Off The Streets

The Moment: Tennessee Williams, the 1976 Jury President, singles out Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver for condemnation: "films should not take a voluptuous pleasure in spilling blood and in lingering on terrible cruelties as though one were at a Roman circus."

Only In Cannes: Taxi Driver won the Palme D'Or anyway.

Let Them Eat Cake

The Moment: Sofia Coppola (daughter of a two-time Palme D'Or winner, remember) goes to France with Marie Antoinette , a fashion-drenched, frivolous film about one of the country's most reviled figures.

Only In Cannes: What else? A chorus of disapproval in which the collision of subject and style acted as an echo chamber for the Festival's favourite pastime of booing everything.

This Is How The World Ends

The Moment: After a preview of footage from Armageddon drew laughter from critics in 1998, Bruce Willis took them on in a hostile press conference.

Only In Cannes: Could an "unfinished product" (as Bruce put it) get more publicity than anything in competition.

Red Carpet Of The Sith

The Moment: The bar is raised for Hollywood hype on the Croisette, as George Lucas premieres Revenge Of The Sith with a flotilla of Stormtroopers flanking the red carpet.

Only In Cannes: Even blockbusters have political resonance. "The anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," reckoned one pundit.

Sylva Lining

The Moment: Publicity-hungry starlet Simone Sylva goes topless during a 1954 photoshoot with Robert Mitchum.

Only In Cannes: At least two broken ribs as photographers fought to get the best shot of Sylva's assets.

Roger Ebert vs Vincent Gallo

The Moment: Roger Ebert calls Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny the worst film in Cannes history, prompting a war of words with the director.

Only In Cannes: As Ebert puts it, "the audience was loud and scornful in its dislike for the movie; hundreds walked out, and many of those who remained only stayed because they wanted to boo. Imagine...a film so unendurably boring that when the hero changes into a clean shirt, there is applause."

A Change In Projection

The Moment: Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls is invited to the 1967 Festival but can't be shown as it requires two synchronised projectors.

Only In Cannes: The alternative reason for the no-show is that the Festival was too scared to show a scene of male nudity. Which isn't like Cannes at all.

Seinfeld mis-bee-haves

The Moment: To promote Bee Movie in 2007, Jerry Seinfeld takes to the skies as he's dangled over the Croisette in an oversized bee costume.

Only In Cannes: Anywhere else, they'd have used a stunt double.

Lars the Antichrist

The Moment: Controversy magnet Lars Von Trier unleashes Antichrist on the 2009 Festival and scores instant outrage... but it's still not the last we'll hear of Lars.

Only In Cannes: In a film featuring genital mutilation and a talking fox, what drew the most ire? Von Trier's dedication to Andrei Tarkovsky, of course.

Blow The Roof Off

The Moment: The day before the closing ceremony of the 1947 Festival, the roof of the venue is blown off during a storm.

Only In Cannes: The ceremony was held instead at the city's casino.

Jury Fever

The Moment: Samuel L. Jackson's breakthrough performance as a crack addict in Jungle Fever wows critics… but since there is no Best Supporting Actor award at Cannes, what can the Jury do?

Only In Cannes: The Jury makes up its own rules, and creates a category (which has never been used since) just to honour Jackson.

This Is Not The Film You're Looking For

The Moment: Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb's This Is Not A Film receives its world premiere, despite the Iranians being under house arrest and banned from making films.

Only In Cannes: The film was uploaded onto a Flash Drive and smuggled out of Iran in a cake.

The Porn Star Who Went Up A Hill

The Moment: It seemed a good idea at the time for Hugh Grant to run up a temporary sand dune on the beach to promote The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain ...

Only In Cannes: ...until a Russian porn star legged it to the summit and proceeded to disrobe.

24 Hour Pigeon People

The Moment: The cast of 24 Hour Party People get into character at the 2001 Festival, with the actors playing the Happy Mondays chucking dead pigeons at each other on the beach.

Only In Cannes: Even a town used to excess has its limits - the actors were chucked off the beach.

Bad Date

The Moment: The Cannes Film Festival is launched... on 1st September, 1939, the day Hitler invaded Poland and sparked WWII.

Only In Cannes: Ironically, the Festival was founded as a riposte to the Fascist leanings of Europe's existing festival in Venice.

Golden Palm

The Moment: In 1955, Cannes creates an icon as it invents the Palme D'Or as the Festival's top prize.

Only In Cannes: An award based on a tree.

Indie Invasion

The Moment: Plenty of newcomers have hit the big time at Cannes, but none with more influence than twentysomething tyro Steven Soderbergh, winning the Palme D'Or for debut sex, lies and videotape .

Only In Cannes: The next few years saw an indie invasion, as David Lynch, the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino all bagged the top prize over the next five years.

The Truffaut Shuffle

The Moment: Journalist Francois Truffaut, a vocal critic of the French film industry, is barred from attending the 1958 Festival.

Only In Cannes: Truffaut was welcomed back the next year as the saviour of French cinema, winning Best Director for his debut The 400 Blows .

The Adventure Begins With Booing

The Moment: When did the booing thing start? Many pinpoint the start of the trend to the violent reaction to Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura at the 1960 Festival, with the director and star Monica Vitti reported to have fled the screening.

Only In Cannes: All was forgiven by the award ceremony, where the film won the Jury Prize.

I Love You, Honey Bunny

The Moment: When an audience member starts screaming at Quentin Tarantino for winning the 1994 Palme D'Or for Pulp Fiction , he gives her the finger.

Only In Cannes: The woman is yelling "Fascist!" in French.

Kazakhstan Fashion

The Moment: Sasha Baron Cohen promotes Borat in character at the 2006 Festival, taking to the beach in a lime-green mankini.

Only In Cannes: ...could a fictional character generate such a paparazzi scrum.

Backwards Mentality

The Moment: Perhaps the definitive Cannes shocker, Gaspar Noe's back-to-front Irreversible led to mass walk-outs at the 2002 Festival, not including 20 people alledged to have fainted during screenings.

Only In Cannes: Yes, even a film that includes a 9-minute rape sequence and a face being caved in with a fire extinguisher gets a lavish, red carpet premiere.

Battle Of The Bulging Biceps

The Moment: Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme nearly come to blows after getting involved in an argument at the 1992 Festival.

Only In Cannes: Alas, the "fight" was merely a publicity stunt for the stars' movie, Universal Soldier .

No Cannes Do

The Moment: In solidarity with the protests rocking France, the country's leading directors - including Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut - announce a premature end to the 1968 Festival.

Only In Cannes: The announcement made, what do you think the audience did? Yes, that's right. They booed.

Lars The Nazi

The Moment: The press conference for Melancholia goes awry when Lars Von Trier digs himself into a massive hole by claiming he admires Adolf Hitler and jokingly claiming to be a Nazi, to the obvious discomfort of his star Kirsten Dunst.

Only In Cannes: After all Lars has done for the Festival's PR machine over the years, and they make him "persona non grata." Tsk.