For the first time, Lancia is present at the Cannes Festival, which runs until 25 May. The occasion is being marked by the Lancia Café, a meeting space set up on the beach of the Hotel Majestic where those taking part in the event are able to meet and enjoy light brunches in a sophisticated, relaxing setting.

The Lancia Café is also welcoming professionals and luminaries of the cinema (actors, producers and distributors) in addition to reporters and representatives of TV stations and the French and international press. Every day, the beach provides the setting for meetings, interviews and press conferences for the films in the official competition, “Un Certain Regard” and “La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs”. A fleet of Lancia Phedra cars, Lancia's stylish Italian range leader that has been appointed the Official Car of the Lancia Café, are also is use along the Promenade de la Croisette.

Lancia’s participation in the 61st edition of the Cannes Festival is part of a communication campaign started back in 2006 that sees Cinema as a cultural medium through which the make can convey the values embodied by its cars: Italian style, quality of life on board, original and innovative solutions, elegance and temperament.

Cannes Film Festival - History

In 1939, French minister for Public Instruction and the Arts, Jean Zay, proposed the creation of an international film event in France. Cannes was chosen for its "sunshine and enchanting setting". However, the first International Film Festival was postponed due to the war. In 1945, the French Association for Artistic Action was asked once again to organise a festival to be held under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Education and, from 1946 onwards, the newly founded National Cinema (CNC).

On September 20, 1946 the International Film Festival - the first important international postwar cultural event - opened its doors at the former Casino de Cannes. It was run as a non-profit organisation with a board of directors, attaining charitable status in 1972. Apart from 1948 and 1950, when lack of funds led to the cancellation of the event, the Festival has taken place each and every year, at first in September, then in May (as of 1951), running approximately two weeks. In 1968, the Festival was interrupted due to political turmoil.

At the outset, the Festival was principally a tourist and social event, more a film forum than a competition, since nearly every film screened walked off with a prize. Over the years, the great increase in participants and new economic stakes involved shifted its orientation. The Festival became the most media-covered annual event of the film industry, with today over 4,000 journalists representing 1,600 media companies.

As of 1959, the official creation of the Marché du Film (Film Market) increased still further the impact of the Festival, providing it with a commercial platform and facilitating meetings and discussions between film industry buyers and sellers. In the forty-five years of its ever-growing existence, the Marché du Film has become the leading market place in the world for international film business. In the same way, the Village International, created in 2000 has enabled an ever-increasing number of countries to promote their culture and cinema.

In parallel to the Official Selection, the International Critics' Week and the Directors' Fortnight respectively opened in 1962 and 1969 with competitions under their own banners. In 1978, upon the initiative of the then General Delegate, Gilles Jacob, the Caméra d'Or prize was created to be awarded to the best first film presented in any of the three selections.

At the beginning, the Festival presented films chosen by their country of origin. In 1972, at the request of General Delegate Maurice Bessy, the Festival's President, Favre le Bret, and the Board of Directors - the Festival would be the sole decision-maker and would select those films from all over the world it wanted to present. This decision marked a turning point and was quickly taken up by other festivals.

In 1998, Gilles Jacob created the Cinéfondation, a selection of short and medium-length motion pictures from film schools all over the world. Its objective: to discover and promote new talent. Since its creation, over 2,000 films from every continent have been sent to the Festival to compete for selection. Following up on this initiative, the Festival opened the Residence in Paris in the autumn of 2000, to pursue the same objective: providing young filmmakers with the chance to develop their screen projects outside their countries of origin and thus encourage the promotion of their work abroad.

In 2000, Gilles Jacob was elected President by the members of the board, succeeding Pierre Viot who held this position since 1985 - and who went on to become President of the Cinéfondation. Since 2001, Gilles Jacob has had strong support from both Veronica Cayla, General Manager, and Thierry Frémaux, Artistic Delegate.

Following that, the Festival developed a series of initatives encouraging both professional and creative development. Since 2004, the Producer's Network (an initiative of the Marché du Film) has been helping producers from around the world find new partnerships and investors. This was also the year the Short Film Corner was created, as a platform for screening and promoting shorts. And another addition was the Cinéma de la Plage - an 'outside the walls' theatre on the beach that screened films from the Official Selection and brought Cannes to the masses.

2005 saw the Cinéfondation extend their programme with the introduction of the Atelier - putting young filmmakers in touch with industry professionals and helping them gain international financing. A new theatre also opened in the International Village to host Tous les Cinemas du Monde so that various countries could showcase their work. Later on that year, Gilles Jacob awarded the position of Festival General Manager to Catherine Démier, replacing Veronica Cayla, who was named General Manager of the C.N.C.

In 2007, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Festival de Cannes, Gilles Jacob invited 33 of the greatest film-makers in the entire world to take part in the anniversary film To Each His Cinema, by directing in 3 minutes each, a short based on the theme of the motion-picture theatre. The film was screened at the anniversary evening of the Festival in the presence of its 33 directors: Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan & Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Manoel de Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, David Lynch, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raúl Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming-Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou.

The poster of the 60th Festival revealed the "new jumpology" project, introduced in 2006 in association with Magnum: to honour the dynamism of creation, a hundred artists responded the Festival's request by coming to "jump" before the lens of photographer Alex Majoli. From November to February 2007, the "One Jump!" exhibit presented its world premiere at Pinacothèque de Paris, with a selection of 55 of these works representing the "taking off" of celebrities of international renown. In July 2007, on Gilles Jacob's proposal, the Board of Directors named Thierry Frémaux General Delegate of the Festival, succeeding in this post Robert Favre-Le Bret, Maurice Bessy and Gilles Jacob.