15 Most Inspiring Cannes Film Festival Posters
This May brings the 66th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. Since its origin in 1946, each festival has been memorialized by a new official poster. Visible everywhere throughout the city of Cannes during May, the posters have become synonymous with the festival itself with designs sometimes inspired by films, sometimes created by filmmakers and sometimes tributes to icons who’ve been part of the fest. Naturally, some years are better than others so we’ve picked our favorites from the past 66 years of the festival.
1. 1946
An original design by Leblanc, we love it because the 1946 poster represents the first year of the film festival when it was a just a small film event in the South of France. (Also, notice the fall date of the festival.
2. and 3. 1961 and 1962
A. M. Rodicq designed the film festival’s poster two years in a row. Abstract designs based on shooting stars are two of the most visually stunning posters in the festival’s history.
4. 1965
The 18th year of the festival brought this design by an unknown artist. Generally, putting a film reel on a film poster seems a little obvious but the 1965 design in the shape of a woman and a various countries flags adds just enough color.
5. 1983
This interesting design comes from the iconic Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who brought us Drunken Angel and Seven Samurai and for that reason alone deserves a spot on our list.
6. 1984
The design for the 37th festival is adapted from a film set by French production designer Alexander Trauner. Trauner designed sets for several films including The Apartment for which he won the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration.
7. 1985
Film history nerds will find poster familiar. This year’s poster was dedicated to Eadweard Muybridge who is known for being a pioneer in capturing motion with stop-action photographs. After being hired to see if all of a horse’s legs are off the ground at some point while galloping, he took a series of consecutive shots, he proved it.
