1954 Cannes Film Festival

The 7th Cannes Film Festival was held from 25 March to 9 April 1954. With Jean Cocteau as president of the jury, the Grand Prix went to the Gate of Hell by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The festival opened with Le Grand Jeu by Robert Siodmak. This was the last festival with a predominantly French jury.

As the festival was becoming more and more a pole of showbiz attraction, scandals and romances of stars were appearing in the press. In 1954, the Simone Silva affair during the Cannes Festival ended up in the destruction of her career as an actor and her premature death, three years later.

Jury

The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1954 competition:

Feature films

• Jean Cocteau (France) - Jury President
• Jean Aurenche (France)
• André Bazin (France)
• Luis Buñuel (Spain)
• Henri Calef (France)
• Guy Desson (MP official) (France)
• Philippe Erlanger (France)
• Michel Fourre-Cormeray (France)
• Jacques-Pierre Frogerais (CNC official) (France)
• Jacques Ibert (France)
• Georges Lamousse (Senate official) (France)
• André Lang (France)
• Noël-Noël (France)
• Georges Raguis (union official) (France)

Short films

• Henning Jensen (Denmark)
• Albert Lamorisse (France)
• Jean Queval (journalist) (France)
• Jean Tedesco (France)
• Jean Vivie (CST official) (France)

Feature film competition

The following feature films competed for the Grand Prix:

Short film competition

The following short films competed for the various short film awards:

Awards

Official awards

The following films and people received the 1954 awards:

• Grand Prix: Gate of Hell by Teinosuke Kinugasa
• International Prize
  • Before the Deluge (Avant le déluge) by André Cayatte
  • Neapolitan Carousel (Carosello napoletano) by Ettore Giannini
  • Chronicle of Poor Lovers (Cronache di poveri amanti) by Carlo Lizzani
  • Two Acres of Land (Do Bigha Zamin) by Bimal Roy
  • Five Boys from Barska Street (Piatka z ulicy Barskiej) by Aleksander Ford
  • The Last Bridge (Die Letzte Brücke) by Helmut Käutner
  • The Living Desert by James Algar
  • The Great Adventure (Det Stora Ädventyret) by Arne Sucksdorff
  • The Great Warrior Skanderbeg (Velikiy voin Albanii Skanderbeg) by Sergei Yutkevich
• Jury Special Prize: Knave of Hearts by René Clément

Independent awards

FIPRESCI Prize

• Before the Deluge (Avant le déluge) by André Cayatte

OCIC Award

• The Last Bridge (Die Letzte Brücke) by Helmut Käutner

Other awards

• Special Mention
  • André Cayatte and Charles Spaak for Before the Deluge (Avant le déluge)
  • Maria Schell for her acting performance in The Last Bridge (Die Letzte Brücke)
  • The camera crew of The Living Desert
  • Aleksander Ford for his direction of Five Boys from Barska Street
  • Arne Sucksdorff for his direction of The Great Adventure (Det Stora Ädventyret)
  • Sergei Yutkevich for his direction of The Great Warrior Skanderbeg (Velikiy voin Albanii Skanderbeg)

References

Media

• Institut National de l'Audiovisuel: Opening of the 1954 Festival (Michèle Morgan and Robert Mitchum, commentary in French)
• INA: Opening of the 1954 Festival (Daniel Gélin and Gina Lollobrigida, commentary in French)

External links

• 1954 Cannes Film Festival (web.archive)
• Official website Retrospective 1954 Archived 2019-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
• Cannes Film Festival Awards for 1954 at Internet Movie Database