The winners at this year’s Cannes Film Festival were announced this weekend as the prestigious event came to a close.
It was a welcome return to Cannes for the world of cinema after last year’s unfortunate cancellation due to COVID-19 and it was weird and wonderful. Although it didn’t win anything, Wes Anderson’s barmy crew for his latest meticulous and pretentious film, The French Dispatch, got the meme treatment for their, um, disparate fashion styles (Team Tilda all the way).
The main prize, the Palme d’Or, went to Julia Ducournau’s Titane, which made her the second female director to win the award, following Jane Campion all the way back in 1993 for The Piano (sadly still only four female directors were involved in the 24 films in the main competition this year). It was a surprise winner because just read what Titane is about: the wild ride of a film follows a serial killer who has sex with a car. Don’t watch this body-horror piece with your nan, yeah?
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Australia didn’t miss out, with Caleb Landry Jones (American) winning Best Actor for his role in Nitram, the latest contentious drama from Justin Kurzel. The film is based on the terrible 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, with Jones playing a character inspired by Martin Bryant. It’s the second film of Kurzel to focus on an infamous Aussie murder spree, following 2011’s Snowtown.
Other notable winners included Leos Carax for Best Director for the imaginative Sparks musical Annette which stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard and, yes, take my money now please (Annette will be available on Amazon Prime on August 20th incidentally).
Best Screenplay went to Drive my Car, a three-hour long adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story. Jodie Foster also deservedly got an Honorary Palme d’Or for her iconic career during the Opening Ceremony.
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One person who walked away from Cannes not happy, though, was poor Spike Lee: the head of the jury had his ‘Moonlight/La La Land‘ moment, accidentally naming Titane as the winner at the start of the ceremony, removing all suspense. No more trips to Cannes for you, Spike.
For the full list of winners, head to Indiewire.
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Watch the trailer for Nitram:
