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Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director

Award presented annually by the Cannes Film Festival

Field	Value
name	Best Director Award
subheader	fr
awarded_for	Best Achievement in Direction
presenter	Cannes Film Festival
country	France
image	Kleber Mendonça Filho-6484.jpg
caption	The 2025 recipient: Kleber Mendonça Filho
year	1946
holder	Kleber Mendonça Filho
The Secret Agent (2025)
website

The Secret Agent (2025)

The Best Director Award () is an award presented annually at the Cannes Film Festival since 1946. It is given for the best achievement in directing and is chosen by the International Jury from the films in the Competition slate at the festival.

At the 1st Cannes Film Festival held in 1946, René Clément was the first winner of this award for his work on The Battle of the Rails, and Kleber Mendonça Filho is the most recent winner in this category for his work on The Secret Agent at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

History

The award was first presented in 1946. The prize was not awarded on 12 occasions (1947, 1953–54, 1960, 1962–64, 1971, 1973–74, 1977, and 1980).

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 directors on seven occasions (1955, 1969, 1975, 1983, 2001–02, and 2016). Joel Coen of the Coen brothers has received the most awards in this category, with three. One directing team has shared the award: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for Young Ahmed (2019). Yuliya Solntseva became the first woman to win the award, for Chronicle of Flaming Years (1961).

The winner of the Best Director Award rarely wins the Palme d'Or, the main prize given at the festival, which is also awarded to the director of the winning film. This happened only twice: Joel Coen won both awards for Barton Fink in 1991; and Gus Van Sant won for Elephant in 2003.

Winners

1940s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1946	1949

1950s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1951	1952	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959

1960s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1961	1965	1966	1967	1969

1970s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1970	1972	1975	1976	1978	1979
Costa-Gavras

1980s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989

1990s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
{{sortname	Wong	Kar-wai	Wong, Kar-wai}}

2000s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
{{sortname	Im	Kwon-taek	Im, Kwon-taek}}

2010s

Year	Director	English Title	Original Title	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
{{sortname	Hou	Hsiao-hsien	Hou, Hsiao-hsien}}

2020s

Year	Director	English Title
		헤어질 결심
		La Passion de Dodin Bouffant
Miguel Gomes	Grand Tour
Kleber Mendonça Filho	The Secret Agent	O Agente Secreto

Multiple winners

The following individuals received two or more Best Director awards:

Number of Wins	Directors	Nationality
Joel Coen	United States	Barton Fink (1991),
Fargo (1996),
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
René Clément	France	The Battle of the Rails (1946),
The Walls of Malapaga (1949)
Robert Bresson	A Man Escaped (1957),
L'Argent (1983)
Sergei Yutkevich	Soviet Union	Othello (1956),
Lenin in Poland (1966)
John Boorman	United Kingdom	Leo the Last (1970),
The General (1998)

References

[https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30894984 Coen brothers to jointly head Cannes jury - BBC News]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/26/movies/cannes-film-festival-van-sant-s-elephant-receives-palme-d-or.html CANNES FILM FESTIVAL; Van Sant's 'Elephant' Receives Palme d'Or - New York Times]
[https://www.vogue.com/article/who-won-who-lost-2016-cannes-film-festival Who Won and Who Lost at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Vogue]
[https://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/cannes-sofia-coppola-best-director-beguiled-1201833491/ Cannes 2017: Sofia Coppola Wins Best Director and Makes History. IndieWire]
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheenascott/2021/07/17/cannes-film-festival-2021-the-list-of-winners/?sh=3729535a38db Cannes Film Festival 2021: The List Of Winners - Forbes]
Tartaglione, Nancy. (28 May 2022). "Cannes Film Festival Winners Announced – Live".
Tartaglione, Nancy. (28 May 2022). "Cannes Film Festival Winners Announced – Live".
"Filme brasileiro 'O Agente Secreto' vence dois prêmios no Festival de Cannes".

Info: Wikipedia Source

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