The 57th Cannes Film Festival started on 12 and ran until 23 May 2004. The Palme d'Or went to the American documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, becoming the first documentary to win the festival's main prize.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a 2004 American documentary film directed and written by, and starring filmmaker, director, political commentator and activist Michael Moore. The subjects of the film are the presidency of George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and the media's coverage of the war. In the film, Moore claims that American corporate media were cheerleaders for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and did not provide an accurate or objective analysis of the rationale for the war and the resulting casualties there.