Cannes 2011: How will the De Niro Jury Vote?: A Brief History of the Palme d’Or

This year’s president of the Festival de Cannes Robert De Niro will preside over jury members including fellow actors Jude Law, Uma Thurman and Martina Gusman, directors Olivier Assayas, Johnnie To and Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Chinese producer Nansun Shi and Norwegian critic and writer Linn Ullmann. The nine jury members will hand out the main prizes including the Palme d’Or amongst others for writing, directing and performances. They will follow the path of some of the greatest names in the history of cinema. Many accused Isabelle Huppert of playing favourites when Haneke finally won for his long overdue Palme. De Niro has worked with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn — will the brotherhood remain intact with a vote going towards Malick? 

Unlike any other awards, the Palme d’Or is the most elusive and coveted of them all. The first prize handed out was the Grand Prix in 1949 at the third edition of the festival to The Third Man by Carol Reed by the president and creator of festival Georges Huisman. The Grand Prix went the following years to Vittorio De Sica’s Miracle in Milan, Alf Sjoberg’s Miss Julie, Orson Welles’ Othello, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate of Hell. In 1955, The Palme d’Or or Golden Palm was awarded for the first time, 9 years after the festival was established in 1946. French author Marcel Pagnol was the president of the festival and the Palme d’Or went to Delbert Mann’s Marty.

In the 64 years of the festival, 31 directors, 15 actors and 13 authors were selected as the Presidents of the festival, among them authors Marcel Pagnol, Georges Simenon, Jean Giono and Tennessee Williams; directors Jean Cocteau, Fritz Lang, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rosselini, Milos Forman, Sydney Pollack, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roman Polanski, Louis Malle, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar-Wai, Stephen Frears, Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton; actors Olivia De Havilland, Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman, Jeanne Moreau, Kirk Douglas, Dirk Bogarde, Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Clint Eastwood, Isabelle Adjani, Liv Ullman, Sean Penn and Isabelle Huppert.

American films hold the record for the most with 15 Palme d’Or wins, followed by the French, Italian and British with 8 each, followed by Japanese and German and Swedish with 3 each. The winner of this year will join the following list of winners besides knowing s/he has impressed none other than legendary Robert DeNiro and his distinguished jury.