The 16th Cannes Film Fest was held May 9 to 23, 1963.
The Palme d’Or went to the The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster.
The festival opened with The Birds, directed by Hitchcock
Jury Members
- Armand Salacrou (France) (president)
- Rouben Mamoulian (USA) (vice president)
- Jacqueline Audry (France)
- Wilfrid Baumgartner (France) (BDF official)
- François Chavane (France)
- Jean De Baroncelli (France) (critic)
- Robert Hossein (France)
- Rostislav Yurenev (Soviet Union)
- Kashiko Kawakita (Japan)
- Steven Pallos (UK)
- Gian Luigi Rondi (Italy)
- Henri Alekan (France) (short films president)
- Robert Alla (France) (short films)
- Karl Schedereit (West Germany) (short films)
- Ahmed Sefrioui (Morocco) (short films)
- Semih Tugrul (Turkey) (journalist) (short films)
Feature film competition
- Les Abysses by Nikos Papatakis
- Als twee druppels water by Fons Rademakers
- Alvorada by Hugo Niebeling
- L’ape regina by Marco Ferreri
- Až přijde kocour by Vojtěch Jasný
- El Buen amorby Francisco Regueiro
- La Cage by Robert Darène
- Carambolages by Marcel Bluwal
- Codine by Henri Colpi
- I Fidanzati by Ermanno Olmi
- Il Gattopardo by Luchino Visconti
- Jak być kochaną by Wojciech Has
- Kertes házak utcája by Tamás Fejér
- Lord of the Flies by Peter Brook
- Optimisticheskaya tragediya by Samson Samsonov
- El Otro Cristóbal by Armand Gatti
- Ouranos by Takis Kanellopoulos
- Pour la suite du monde by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault
- Le Rat d’Amérique by Jean-Gabriel Albicocco
- Seppuku by Masaki Kobayashi
- This Sporting Life by Lindsay Anderson
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Robert Mulligan (US)
- Tyutyun by Nikola Korabov
- Los Venerables todos by Manuel Antín
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Robert Aldrich (US)
- Wu Ze Tian by Li Han Hsiang
Films out of competition
- 8½ by Federico Fellini
- The Birds by Hitchcock
Awards:
- Palme d’Or: Il Gattopardo by Luchino Visconti
- Jury Special Prize:
- Až přijde kocour by Vojtěch Jasný
- Seppuku by Masaki Kobayashi
- Best Actor: Richard Harris for This Sporting Life
- Best Actress: Marina Vlady for L’ape regina
- Best Screenplay: Dumitru Carabat, Henri Colpi and Yves Jamiaque for Codine
- Best Evocation of a World-Shattering Epic: Optimisticheskaya tragediya by Samson Samsonov
- Short Film Palme d’Or:
- Le Haricot by Edmond Séchan
- In wechselndem Gefälle by Alexander J. Seiler
- Jury Prize – Short Film: Moj Stan by Zvonimir Berković
- Special Mention – Short Film:
- Di Domenica by Luigi Bazzoni
- Te by István Szabó
- Gary Cooper Award: To Kill a Mockingbird by Robert Mulligan
- OCIC Award: I Fidanzati by Ermanno Olmi