How World War II Created the Cannes Film Festival

For six years the world’s fair of the cinema world has been the International Film Festival at Venice. In the past this annual, late-summer gathering to pick the world’s best films has chosen such universally acclaimed cinemas as Man of Aran, Anna Karenina, Mayerling, La Kermesse Héroïque. But two years ago B. Mussolini began to take a personal, political interest in the cinema business, and last year cinemindustries not bedded in the Rome-Berlin axis began to feel its centrifugal force. The No. 1 prize, the Mussolini Cup, went jointly to Nazi Leni Riefenstahl’s 1936 Olympic Games film (four hours running time) and to Vittorio Mussolini’s Luciano Serra, Pilota, an ecstatic drama of Italian wings over Ethiopia. Walt Disney’s world favorite, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was favored with a special Hors Concours (out of competition) Medal.

Last week France, Great Britain and the U. S. decided to let Venice be bygones, were reported getting together on a new international film festival to be held this year at Cannes, September 3-17.