Jury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)

The Jury Prize (French: Prix du Jury) is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. According to American film critic Dave Kehr, the award is "intended to recognize an original work that embodies the spirit of inquiry".^[1]

It most recent winner was the German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach for The Dreamed Adventure at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

History

The award was first presented in 1946. The prize was not awarded on 10 occasions (1947, 1949, 1953, 1967, 1974–79, 1981–82, 1984, and 2001). The festival was not held at all in 1948, 1950, and 2020. In 1968, no awards were given as the festival was called off mid-way due to the May 1968 events in France. Also, the jury vote was tied and the prize was shared by two films on 21 occasions (1957, 1960, 1962–63, 1970–71, 1973, 1987, 1991–93, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2021–22, and 2025). Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold have won the most awards in this category, each winning three. Irma P. Hall is the only actress to win in this category, for her role in The Ladykillers (2004). Four directing teams have shared the award: Enrico Gras, Giorgio Moser and Leonardo Bonzi for Lost Continent (1955), Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud for Persepolis (2007), Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles for Bacurau (2019), and Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch for The Eight Mountains (2022). Samira Makhmalbaf was the first woman to have won the award, for 2000's Blackboards.

Since 1967, the official name of the award has been simply the Prix du Jury, but it has had two other names since its creation in 1946: the International Jury Prize, which was awarded for that year only,^[2] and the Prix spécial du Jury (1951–1967) that was given among other secondary prizes. In 1954, after facing much criticism about the whimsical nature of these awards, the Festival authorities decided to turn to a more traditional prize-giving arrangement.^[3] Since then, the Prix spécial du Jury reappeared only twice: Christopher Hampton won that award for Carrington along with the regular Prix du Jury given to Xavier Beauvois for Don't Forget You're Going to Die in 1995; and David Cronenberg won for Crash in 1996, which was the only prize allotted by the International Jury for that year.^[4][5]

British film academic Andrew M. Butler regards jury prizes such as Cannes' as a way of helping a film gain a distribution deal.^[6]

Winners

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Notes

^‡ Awarded as "Special Jury Prize", a unique award not given annually but only at the request of the official jury.

^* The Jury Prize was specially awarded to Irma P. Hall for acting in The Ladykillers.

Multiple winners

The following individuals received two or more Jury Prize awards:

See also

• Palme d'Or
• Grand Prix (second place)

References

1. ^ Kehr, Dave (1992). 45 Years: Cannes Festival International du Film. Museum of Modern Art. p. 15. OCLC 646921388
2. ^ "Awards 1946 : All Awards (archived)". festival-cannes.fr. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
3. ^ "The History of the Festival / The 50s". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
4. ^ "Awards 1995 : All Awards (archived)". festival-cannes.fr. Archived 3 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
5. ^ "Awards 1996 : All Awards (archived)". festival-cannes.fr. Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
6. ^ Butler, Andrew M. (2002). "11. National Cinema". Film Studies. Oldacastle Books. p. 128. ISBN 184243828X.
7. ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (2026-05-23). "Cannes 2026 Winners: ‘Fjord’ Wins Palme D’Or". Deadline. Retrieved 2026-05-23.

External links

• Cannes Film Festival official website
• Cannes Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database