Created by the French Directors Guild in the wake of the events of May ’68, the Directors’ Fortnight seeks to aid filmmakers and contribute to their discovery by the critics and audiences alike. From its initial program in 1969, it cast its lot with the avant-garde (the glorious seventies), even as it created a breeding ground where the Cannes Festival would regularly find its prestigious auteurs.

Since its inception, the Directors' Fortnight has showcased the first films of Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Ken Loach, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, Chantal Akerman, Spike Lee, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Sofia Coppola, … invité Robert Bresson, Manoel de Oliveira, Stephen Frears, Jerzy Skolimowski, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola... among others.

Among the various sections at the Cannes Film Festival, the Directors' Fortnight is distinguished by its independent-mindedness, its non-competitive nature and its concern to cater to non-professional Cannes audiences, which can buy a subscription for the entire Fortnight program or purchase tickets for individual screenings.

Striving to be eclectic and receptive to all forms of cinematic expression, the Directors' Fortnight pays particular attention to the annual production of fiction features, short films and documentaries, to the emergence of independent fringe filmmaking, and even to contemporary popular genres, provided these films are the expression of an individual talent and an original directorial style.