The Cannes International Film Festival closed on 24 may with the announcement that Austrian director Michael Heneke’s The White Ribbon has taken the Palme d’Or.
Sixty-seven year old Haneke is no stranger to Cannes, having won the Grand Prize in 2001 and Best Director in 2005. The White Ribbon, a black and white film set in North Germany in 1913, was co-produced by Germany, France and Italy.
This year’s Grand Prize was awarded to A Prophet, directed by France’s Jacques Audiard. Italy was a minority co-producer in the film.
Possibly the most hyped film at Cannes, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, picked up a Best Actor award for Austrian Christoph Waltz for his role as a Nazi. Inglorious Basterds was co-produced by Germany.
Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress for her performance in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.
The Special Jury Prize went to French director Alain Resnais, who was in competition this year with Wild Grass. UK filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) shared the Jury Prize with Korean director Park Chan-wook’s (Thirst).
Philippine filmmaker Brillante Mendoza won Best Director for Kinatay. Screen Africa readers may recall that Mendoza won Best Film at last year’s Durban International Film Festival for Foster Child. Best Screenplay went to China’s Mei Feng for Spring Fever. Both this film and Kinatay were co-produced by France.
The Palme d’Or for Best Short Film went to Portugal’s João Salaviza for Arena. Australian director Warwick Thornton received the Camera d’Or for Best Debut Feature for Samson and Delilah. )
In the Un Certain Regard section, the Un Certain Regard Award was presented to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Greek feature Dogtooth, with Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu winning the Jury Prize for Police, Adjective.
The Special Jury Prize was jointly awarded to France’s Mia Hansen-Love for Father of My Children and Bahman Ghobadi for the Iranian/German co-production, Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats.
