The award was first presented in 1946. The prize was not awarded on 10 occasions (1947, 1949, 1953, 1967, 1974–79, 1981–82, 1984, and 2001). The festival was not held at all in 1948, 1950, and 2020. In 1968, no awards were given as the festival was called off mid-way due to the
May 1968 events in France. Also, the jury vote was tied and the prize was shared by two films on 21 occasions (1957, 1960, 1962–63, 1970–71, 1973, 1987, 1991–93, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2021–22, and 2025).
Ken Loach and
Andrea Arnold have won the most awards in this category, each winning three.
Irma P. Hall is the only actress to win in this category, for her role in
The Ladykillers (2004). Four directing teams have shared the award:
Enrico Gras,
Giorgio Moser and Leonardo Bonzi for
Lost Continent (1955),
Marjane Satrapi and
Vincent Paronnaud for
Persepolis (2007),
Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles for
Bacurau (2019), and
Felix van Groeningen and
Charlotte Vandermeersch for
The Eight Mountains (2022).
Samira Makhmalbaf was the first woman to have won the award, for 2000's
Blackboards. Since 1967, the official name of the award has been simply the
Prix du Jury, but it has had two other names since its creation in 1946: the
International Jury Prize, which was awarded for that year only, and the
Prix spécial du Jury (1951–1967) that was given among other secondary prizes. In 1954, after facing much criticism about the whimsical nature of these awards, the Festival authorities decided to turn to a more traditional prize-giving arrangement. Since then, the
Prix spécial du Jury reappeared only twice:
Christopher Hampton won that award for
Carrington along with the regular
Prix du Jury given to
Xavier Beauvois for ''
Don't Forget You're Going to Die in 1995; and David Cronenberg won for Crash'' in 1996, which was the only prize allotted by the International Jury for that year. British film academic
Andrew M. Butler regards jury prizes such as Cannes' as a way of helping a film gain a
distribution deal. ==Winners==