René Jeanne was a French actor, writer, and cinema historian.
Jeanne was also notable for serving on the jury of the Mostra de Venise in 1937 and 1938.
Its goal would be to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which had become politicised and was controlled at that time by Benito Mussolini.
He passed the idea to Jean Zay, the French Minister of Public Instruction at the time.
Zay appreciated the idea, and therefore undertook the founding of the famous Festival de Cannes.