The world's biggest and most important film festival is the Festival de Cannes. More than 40,000 people working in the film industry come to this festival, as well as huge numbers of visitors. Cannes isn't a huge town - its total population is about 70,000 but for two weeks in May it more than doubles as the whole town is taken over for the festival.

The first festival should have been held in 1939, but had to be postponed because of World War II. It finally started in 1946 and has been held every year since, though now it is always in May rather than September.

The most important prize is the Palme d'Or (golden palm) for the best film. Only 5 directors have ever managed to do this twice.

Other major film festivals include the Sundance, the London and Berlin film festivals. You can learn more about the diffferent festivals here.