The Festival de Cannes’ official posters: facts, figures and trivia

Over the past twenty years, the Festival has paid tribute to film in the most eye-catching way possible: by using iconic images from cult movies as the basis for its posters.

In 2006, a still by Hong Kong photographer Wing Shya on the set of In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-Wai (in Competition in 2000) was chosen. For 2009’s 62nd edition, actor Monica Vitti is shown from behind in L’Avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni (Jury Prize, 1960). Jean-Luc Godard’s feature films inspired two iconic posters for the Festival de Cannes: in 2016, with a scene from Mépris in which Michel Piccoli climbs the stairs separating him from Brigitte Bardot, and just two years later in 2018 with a kiss from Pierrot le Fou. And for the 75th edition in 2022, Jim Carrey feels at the walls of a fictional world in The Truman Show by Peter Weir.

Ever since the 1990s, the Festival de Cannes has being paying particular care to showcasing female film icons on its posters, with the first being Marlène Dietrich, the face of the 45th edition in 1992.

Monica Vitti (2009), Juliette Binoche (2010), Faye Dunaway (2011), Marilyn Monroe (2012), Ingrid Bergman (2015) and Claudia Cardinale (2017) all followed in her footsteps. Agnès Varda snapped on the set of La Pointe Courte in 1954 became the poster girl for the 72nd edition in 2019. Batting for the men’s team, Marcello Mastroianni is alone in having his face in focus for the Festival’s poster in 2014.

The 2007 edition marked the Festival’s 60th anniversary with nine film stars sharing the limelight on the poster: Pedro Almodovar, Juliette Binoche, Jane Campion, Souleymane Cissé, Penélope Cruz, Gérard Depardieu, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Wong Kar-Wai were captured mid-jump in a nod to photographer Philippe Halsman.

On three separate occasions, the Festival de Cannes chose a snap of a kiss for its official poster, like a love letter to film itself: Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman locking lips in Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock in 1993, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in A New Kind of Love by Melville Shavelson in 2013, and Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo’s kiss in Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou in 2018.

In 1982 and 1994, the Festival de Cannes’ posters featured artwork by Federico Fellini. The maestro nearly became an illustrator as a young man, and throughout his life he kept up the practice of sketching out his dreams, drawing the fantasies, characters and décors he brought to life in his films. The poster for 2003 and its bold “Viva il cinema” statement is also a tribute to the filmmaker, too.

In 1983, the poster was illustrated by another incredibly talented director: none other than Akira Kurosawa.

While all Cannes posters since 2005 have been photographs, the first photo wasn’t actually used until 1973, for the 26th edition and its snapshot of the waves at the Croisette beach.

Illustrated posters were a long-standing Festival de Cannes tradition for many years: 45 of all 75 official posters feature drawings or paintings (six out of 10), with artwork especially created for the event by A.M. Rodicq, Jean-Denis Maillart, Jouineau and Bourduge, and Wojciech Siudmak.

When it comes to hues, the Festival de Cannes has a definite soft spot for primary colours. Over half of all 75 posters feature blue, closely followed by red and yellow.

Understated black and white has been used 14 times, often on posters based on photograms.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a poster where green steals the limelight: in the world of entertainment, the colour is believed to be unlucky.

The bay of Cannes is the number-one source of inspiration for the Festival, with the sea making ten appearances, the sky 11, and the stars seven.

Film reels are the item you’ll spot most frequently: 17 different times, compared to just seven for cameras.

The early posters draw heavily on flags, pointing to a time when the films in Competition were presented by their home countries.

The Palme d’Or stars on seven posters, well ahead of the red carpet, which makes a meagre two appearances.