| Official poster of the 36th Cannes Film Festival, adapted from an original drawing by Akira Kurosawa. [1] | |
| Opening film | The King of Comedy |
|---|---|
| Closing film | WarGames |
| Location | Cannes, France |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Awards | Palme d'Or : The Ballad of Narayama [2] |
| No. of films | 22 (In Competition) [3] |
| Festival date | 7 May 1983 – 19 May 1983 |
| Website | festival-cannes |
The 36th Cannes Film Festival took place from 7 to 19 May 1983. American author William Styron served as jury president for the main competition.
Japanese filmmaker Shōhei Imamura won the Palme d'Or , the festival's top prize, for the drama film The Ballad of Narayama . [4] [5]
In 1983, the festival's new main building, the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, was inaugurated. [6] Initially many described it as "a hideous concrete blockhouse", nicknaming it The Bunker. [7]
The festival opened with The King of Comedy by Martin Scorsese, [8] [9] and closed with WarGames by John Badham. [10] [11]
The following feature films competed for the Palme d'Or : [3]
The following films were selected for the Un Certain Regard section: [3]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bella Donna | Peter Keglevic | West Germany | |
| Caballo salvaje | Joaquín Cortés | Venezuela | |
| Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? | Henry Jaglom | United States | |
| The Eighties | Les Années 80 | Chantal Akerman | Belgium, France |
| The Haircut | Tamar Simon Hoffs | United States | |
| The Herdsman | 牧马人 | Xie Jin | China |
| Humanonon | Michel François | France | |
| La matiouette ou l'arrière-pays | André Téchiné | ||
| Nešto između | Srđan Karanović | Yugoslavia | |
| News Items | Faits divers | Raymond Depardon | France |
| The Pool Hustlers | Io, Chiara e lo scuro | Maurizio Ponzi | Italy |
| Poverty Certificate | Le certificat d'indigence | Moussa Bathily | Senegal |
| The Shimmering Beast | La bête lumineuse | Pierre Perrault | Canada |
| Twenty Years of African Cinema | Caméra d'Afrique | Férid Boughedir | Tunisia |
| Ulysse | Agnès Varda | France | |
| Zappa | Bille August | Denmark | |
The following films were selected to be screened out of competition: [3]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angelo My Love | Robert Duvall | United States | |
| Boat People | 投奔怒海 | Ann Hui | Hong Kong, China |
| Équateur | Serge Gainsbourg | France, West Germany, Gabon | |
| Holtpont | Ferenc Rofusz | Hungary | |
| The Hunger | Tony Scott | United Kingdom, United States | |
| The Man in the Silk Hat | L'homme au chapeau de soie | Maud Linder | France |
| Modori River | もどり川 | Tatsumi Kumashiro | Japan |
| Streamers | Robert Altman | United States | |
| Utu | Geoff Murphy | New Zealand | |
| Walking, Walking | Cammina, cammina | Ermanno Olmi | Italy |
| WarGames (closing film) | John Badham | United States | |
| The Wicked Lady | Michael Winner | United Kingdom, United States | |
The following short films competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or: [3]
The following feature films were screened for the 22nd International Critics' Week (22e Semaine de la Critique): [13]
The following films were screened for the 1983 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalizateurs): [14]