[4] The Palme d'Or went to the O Pagador de Promessas by Anselmo Duarte.

[5] The festival opened with Les Amants de Teruel, directed by Raymond Rouleau.

During the Cannes Film Festival of 1961, Robert Favre le Bret, Artistic Director of the Cannes Film Festival, with the agreement of the French Union of Film Critics, had decided to establish the International Critics' Week during the next Festival.

In 1962, this parallel section of the Festival took place for the first time.

Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors from all over the world, not succumbing to commercial tendencies.