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.

Boowatch

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

Beach Ball Of The Dead

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Super Palme

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

Opening Hours

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

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.

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."

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.

Brunette Bardot

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

Easy Riders

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 .

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Sylva Lining

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 ...

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.

Bad Date

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

Golden Palm

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

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 .

The Truffaut Shuffle

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

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.

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.

Kazakhstan Fashion

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

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.

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.

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.

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.