Awarded the Coupe Jean-George Auriol 1963, by the jury's unanimous decision, in France.
Initially, director Georges Franju had been more interested in producing a remake of Louis Feuillade's Fantômas I: À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913), than Judex (1916), as he thought its criminal title character was more exciting. However, he was fascinated by the tension in Judex's character between being good and evil.
The original Judex (1916), a 12-chapter crime fantasy serial from the impossibly prolific Louis Feuillade, was an epic tale of revenge perpetrated by a mysterious black-cloaked figure upon a ruthless banker who callously destroys lives in his grasp for power and fortune. The story has echoes of The Count of Monte Cristo and the mysterious Judex is like a proto-Batman with his disguises, secret lair, and fantastic tools and gadgets. Franju discarded the motivations and much of the exposition and transformed Feuillade's elegant roller-coaster cliffhanger into a kind of dream ballet.
The production of Judex (1963) happened by chance. French writer Francis Lacassin was writing an article on French film, and while doing research he was approached by a production manager with an idea for a film, when he suggested to do a film on Judex. The story came to Jacques Champreux (grandson of the original creator of Judex, Louis Feuillade) and long-time admirer of director Georges Franju. Champreux asked the latter to make the film and he accepted despite having a stronger desire to remake Fantômas. Franju was not very interested in the character or original story of Judex, stating that "Judex is the only film of Feuillade that isn't good Feuillade," but he wanted to recreate the film in the style of early French cinema that he remembered from his childhood. Champreux's idea for the film was to combine Franju's film style with the elements of the story in the original Judex and started writing the screenplay with that in mind. Champreux and Franju had the film open with a costume ball where everyone is wearing animal masks. This scene is influenced by French cartoonist J.J. Granville, who depicted people with the heads of animals and birds.
Channing Pollock, who was a famous conjurer in cabaret circles, was cast as Judex. He was a good-looking American magician who had little acting experience and spoke no French. Pollock was a cabaret star with a sleight of hand act and Franju used those skills to give Judex a strange, surreal and memorable entrance. Pollock had been in several films beforehand and the backing producers wanted to make him into a Rudolph Valentino-type star. Georges Franju and Jacques Champreux made his character into more of a magical character rather than a "dispenser of justice." Many actresses were thought of for the role of Diana Monti, originally played by Musidora in the Feuillade's Judex. Franju and Champreaux wanted someone who would "still look good even in the dark" and originally desired to have Brigitte Bardot as Diana Monti which excited their producers, but she proved too expensive. After seeing Les abysses (1963) at the Cannes Film Festival, they chose Francine Bergé who also played the role of Michele in the film. Franju cast Edith Scob as Jacqueline who he had worked with on his previous films, including Os Olhos Sem Rosto (1960) and Relato Intimo (1962).