The 71-year-old Hatchuel, who runs the festival as a privately owned company, is locked in talks with three interested parties, one of which is understood to be the media company Emap Group.
A deal is expected as early as the end of July or the beginning of August.
The successful purchaser can expect to make an income of 20 million euros from the sale of delegates' passes and entries for the event, which is held every year in June.
It had been thought that Hatchuel would pass the festival's leadership over to his 31-year-old son Romain. But this was thrown into question after a split between father and son more than two years ago.
Romain subsequently quit as the Cannes' chief executive, taking a job at the Havas-owned Euro RSCG. Earlier this year, however, he founded a branding agency called The Key, with Philippe Starck.
The Hatchuels are understood to have fallen out over Hatchuel senior's plans to relocate the festival's headquarters from London to Paris.
The festival was founded in 1954 by a group of European cinema contractors including Pearl & Dean and Cinema el Publicite.
Inspired by the Cannes Film Festival, the aim was to celebrate great advertising while attracting advertisers to their medium.
The festival has come in for criticism in recent years for the increasingly high costs of entering the awards scheme. A single delegate's pass costs more than 2,000 euros. Nevertheless, entries increased by 14 per cent, totalling 18,705 in 2004.
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