The 26th Cannes Film Festival took place from 10 to 25 May 1973. Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman served as jury president for the main competition.
The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, then the festival's main prize, was jointly awarded to American filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg for Scarecrow and British filmmaker Alan Bridges for The Hireling.
During this edition two new non-competitive sections were added: Étude et documents and Perspectives du Cinéma Français (which was started by the French Film Directors' Society and ran until 1991).
This edition was notorious for the controversy around Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain screening due to the film's depiction of extreme violence.