1970 Cannes Film Festival: History and Background

The 23rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 3 to 18 May 1970. Guatemalan author and Nobel Prize laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias served as jury president for the main competition.

The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, then the festival's main prize, was awarded to M*A*S*H by Robert Altman.

In this edition, Robert Favre LeBret, the founder of the festival, decided not to include any films from Russia and Japan (their flags were also omitted on the Croisette). He was supposedly tired of the "Slavic spectacles and Japanese samurai flicks.". The Russians took back their juror Sergei Obraztsov (head of Moscow puppet theater) and left the jury panel with only eight members.

The festival opened with The Things of Life by Claude Sautet and closed with Le Bal du Comte d'Orgel by Marc Allégret.

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