2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. The awards were announced on 24 May, French film The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet, was awarded with the Palme.
Official poster of the 61st Cannes Film Festival featuring a photo of model Anouk Marguerite and photographed by Pierre Collier. | |
| Opening film | Blindness |
|---|---|
| Closing film | What Just Happened |
| Location | Cannes, France |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Awards | Palme d'Or: The Class |
| Hosted by | Édouard Baer |
| No. of films | 22 (En Competition) 20 (Un Certain Regard) 8 (Out of Competition) 17 (Cinéfondation) 7 (Special screening) 9 (Short Film) |
| Festival date | 14 May 2008 – 25 May 2008 |
| Website | festival-cannes |
The festival opened with Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles and closed with What Just Happened, directed by Barry Levinson. Édouard Baer was the master of ceremonies. Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen, opened the Un Certain Regard section.
The British press reported the list of films in competition this year was notable for its absence of British films for the second successive year. In addition to films selected for competition this year, major Hollywood productions such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Kung Fu Panda had their world premieres at the festival.