The 41st Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 23 May 1988. The Palme d'Or went to the Pelle erobreren by Bille August.
The festival opened with Le Grand Bleu, directed by Luc Besson and closed with Willow, directed by Ron Howard.
Juries
Main competition
The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1988 feature film competition: Ettore Scola, Italian screenwriter and director (Jury President) Claude Berri, French director, screenwriter, producer, and actor David Robinson, British film critic Yelena Safonova, Soviet Russian actress George Miller, Australian firector, producer, and screenwriter Héctor Olivera, Argentine director, producer, and screenwriter Nastassja Kinski, German actress Philippe Sarde, French composer Robby Müller, Dutch cinematographer William Goldman, American novelist – Goldman wrote about the experience in his book Hype and Glory.
Camera d'Or
The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1988 Camera d'Or: Danièle Delorme (actress) (France) President Bernard Jubard Carlos Avellar (journalist) Chantal Calafato (cinephile) David Streiff (cinephile) Ekaterina Oproiu (journalist) Henry Chapier (critic) (France) Jacques Champreux (director) (France)
Official selection
In competition – Feature films
The following feature films competed for the Palme d'Or:
The Abyss (L'oeuvre au noir) by André Delvaux
Bird by Clint Eastwood
The Cannibals (Os Canibais) by Manoel de Oliveira
Chocolat by Claire Denis
El Dorado by Carlos Saura
Drowning by Numbers by Peter Greenaway
L'enfance de l'art by Francis Girod
Hanussen by István Szabó
King of the Children (Hai zi wang) by Chen Kaige
Love and Fear (Paura e amore) by Margarethe von Trotta
El Lute II: Tomorrow I'll be Free (El Lute II: mañana seré libre) by Vicente Aranda Miles from Home by Gary Sinise Pascali's Island by James Dearden The Passenger – Welcome to Germany (Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany) by Thomas Brasch Patty Hearst by Paul Schrader Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle erobreren) by Bille August The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey by Vincent Ward A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu) by Krzysztof Kieślowski Sur by Fernando Solanas A World Apart by Chris Menges Wuthering Heights (Arashi ga oka) by Yoshishige Yoshida
Un Certain Regard
The following films were selected for the competition of Un Certain Regard:
Among Grey Stones (Sredi serykh kamney) by Kira Muratova
Antarjali Jatra by Gautam Ghose
The Harms Case (Slucaj Harms) by Slobodan D. Pesic
Havinck by Frans Weisz
Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie by Marcel Ophüls
It's Happening Tomorrow (Domani accadrà) by Daniele Luchetti
Katinka (Ved vejen) by Max von Sydow
Lamento by François Dupeyron
Lounge Chair (La méridienne) by Jean-François Amiguet
Mapantsula by Oliver Schmitz
The Mask (La maschera) by Fiorella Infascelli
Natalia by Bernard Cohn
Night Journey (Gece Yolculuğu) by Ömer Kavur
On the Silver Globe (Na srebrnym globie) by Andrzej Żuławski
The Raggedy Rawney by Bob Hoskins
The Revolving Doors (Les Portes tournantes) by Francis Mankiewicz
Rouge of the North (Yuan nu) by Fred Tan
Sand and Blood (De sable et de sang) by Jeanne Labrune
A Song of Air by Merilee Bennett
Stalin's Disciples (Yaldei Stalin) by Nadav Levitan
Time of Violence (Време на насилие) by Ludmil Staikov
Why? (Proc?) by Karel Smyczek
Out of competition
The following films were selected to be screened out of competition.
Le Grand Bleu by Luc Besson (Special screenings) The Blue Iguana by John Lafia Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bill Couturié (Special screenings) Histoires du cinéma by Jean-Luc Godard (Special screenings) The Milagro Beanfield War by Robert Redford Willow by Ron Howard
Short film competition
The following short films competed for the Palme d'Or du court métrage: