The Cannes Film Festival’s top honour, the Palme d’Or, was awarded to the French film, The Class, by the Sean Penn-headed international jury on 25 May. Benicio De Toro won best actor for Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Che, while Steve McQueen’s Hunger won best first feature.
Directed by Laurent Cantent and starring non-professional actors, The Class follows a year in the life of a French schoolteacher working in a rough Paris neighbourhood.
Two special lifetime achievement awards were presented to French actress Catherine Deneuve and American director Clint Eastwood, whose Cannes entry Changeling surprisingly did not win any awards despite receiving much critical acclaim.
Best actress was Sandra Coveloni in Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’ Linha de Pass and Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the directing award for Three Monkeys.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne took the screenplay award for Le Silence de Lorna.
Both the grand prix and the jury prize went to Italian films: the grand prix to Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, a brutally realistic examination of organised crime in Naples; and the jury prize to Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino’s portrait of the former Italian Prime Minister Giulio.
