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