[3] Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the drama film Amour.

The official poster of the festival features Marilyn Monroe, to mark the 50th anniversary of her death.

[4] The festival opened with Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson, and the closed with Thérèse Desqueyroux by Claude Miller.

[12][13] The festival's artistic leader Thierry Frémaux responded that people should not focus only on the competition films: "The selection is an ensemble; you have to consider the whole package.

The feature competition consists entirely of directorial debuts, something the section's artistic director Charles Tesson stressed was not intentional, but only the way it turned out when the submissions had been judged by quality.

He revealed that Holy Motors, Paradise: Love and Post Tenebras Lux were the entries that most had divided the jury.