The 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from 17 May 2006 to 28 May 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury.

English director Ken Loach won Palme d'Or, with his movie The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Other winners were Pedro Almodóvar (Best Screenplay, Volver) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Best Director, Babel). This also marked the first time in three years that no American film, actor, actress, or filmmaker won any awards in Cannes.

The festival opened with the premiere screening of The Da Vinci Code, based on the controversial novel by Dan Brown. Journalists gave the film a cool reception at its first press screening, with loud laughter breaking out at one of the pivotal scenes.

The Cannes International Film Festival (French: Le Festival International du Film de Cannes or just Festival de Cannes), is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is the world's most prestigious and publicized film festival. The invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.

The 2012 Cannes Film Festival took place from May 16 to May 27, 2012. The President of the Jury was the Italian film director Nanni Moretti.

The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in the late 1930s when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger and with the support of the British and Americans,^{[clarification needed]} set up an international cinematographic festival. In 1947, the festival was held as the "Festival du film de Cannes", where films from sixteen countries were presented. Moreover, the principle of equality was introduced, so that the jury was to be made up only of one representative per country. Also, this year the festival was held at the made-for-the-occasion Palais des Festivals, although the roof was unfinished and blew off during a storm. The festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. In 1951, owing to better relations between France and Italy, the Cannes Festival was moved to Spring, while the Mostra remained in Autumn.

Coordinates: 43°33′05″N 7°00′46″E / 43.5513°N 7.0128°E / 43.5513; 7.0128

Cannes (French pronunciation: [kan], in Occitan Canas) is a city located in the French Riviera. It is a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a commune of France located in the Alpes-Maritimes department.

The city is also famous for its various luxury shops, restaurants, and hotels. On 3 November 2011 it played host to the G20 organisation of industrialised nations.

By the 2nd century BC the Ligurian Oxybii established a settlement here known as Aegitna. Historians are unsure what the name means. The area was a fishing village used as a port of call between the Lérins Islands.

In 69 AD it became the scene of violent conflict between the troops of Othos and Vitellius.

In the 10th century the town was known as Canua^{[citation needed]}. The name may derive from "canna", a reed. Canua was probably the site of a small Ligurian port, and later a Roman outpost on Le Suquet hill, suggested by Roman tombs discovered here. Le Suquet housed an 11th-century tower which overlooked swamps where the city now stands. Most of the ancient activity, especially protection, was on the Lérins islands and the history of Cannes is the history of the islands.

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. Increasingly film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings. The films may be of recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include international releases as well as films produced by the organisers' domestic film industry. Sometimes there is a focus on a specific film-maker or genre (e.g., film noir) or subject matter (e.g., horror film festivals). A number of film festivals specialise in short films, each with its defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events.

The first major film festival was held in Venice in 1932; the other major and oldest film festivals of the world are: Cannes Film Festival (1939), Festival del film Locarno (1946), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1946), Edinburgh International Film Festival (1947), Melbourne International Film Festival (1951), Berlin International Film Festival (1951) and Toronto International Film Festival (1976).

Jena Malone (/mʌˈloʊn/; born November 21, 1984) is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), and has appeared in films including Contact (1997), Stepmom (1998), Donnie Darko (2001), Saved! (2004), Into the Wild (2007), The Ruins (2008) and Sucker Punch (2011).

Malone is also an experimental musician who has released music both under her own name and as "The Shoe".

Malone had lived in 27 locations by the age of nine, including Lake Tahoe, California. She was raised by her mother, Deborah, and her mother's girlfriend, whom she calls "Godmom," and began taking an interest in acting after watching her mother, who was involved in community theatre. She briefly moved to Las Vegas, hated it, and persuaded her mother to move on to Los Angeles. Malone was home-schooled from sixth to eighth grade. She attended the Professional Children's School, for the ninth grade, in New York, and quit it after a year, when she became legally emancipated, in January 2000. At some point she later obtained her General Educational Development (GED).