The 12th Cannes Film Festival was held from 30 April to 15 May 1959.

[4] The Palme d'Or went to the Orfeu Negro by Marcel Camus.

[5] The festival opened with Les Quatre Cents Coups, directed by François Truffaut and closed with The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by George Stevens.

Before this year the market was held unofficially in the cinemas of the rue d'Antibes in Cannes.

Another important development of that year for the Festival, was that the French cinema moved away from the Ministry of Industry and became part of Ministry of Cultural Affairs.