Jean Vigo Prize
Founded in 1951 by Claude Aveline, this annual award is named after the director Jean Vigo. It emphasizes originality and is often granted to emerging directors. After 1960, it was decided that two awards would be given each year, one for feature-length film and one for short film. Films that have received the prize include Alain Resnais and Chris Marker's Les Statues meurent aussi (1954), Resnais's Nuit et brouillard (1956), Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1959), Jean-Luc Godard's A bout de souffle (1960), Ousmane Sembene's La Noire de . . . (1966), Mehdi Charef's Le Thé au harem d'Archimède (1985), and Cédric Kahn's Trop de bonheur (1994).
Historical Dictionary of French Cinema. Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins. 2007.