CANNES FESTIVAL

THE WINNERS ARE…

Cannes – France

With her impressive trial film Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet is the second French director – and the third woman – to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She succeeds Julia Ducournau, a member of this year’s jury, who won for Titane in 2021. With her fourth feature film to win the supreme prize, Justine Triet completes the Cannes grand slam: her first film, La Bataille de Solférino, was presented in 2013 at ACID, a parallel selection dedicated to emerging filmmakers; her next film, Victoria, opened the festival’s Critics’ Week in 2016; then Sibyl was in official competition in 2019. Winning the Palme d’Or four years later is an exemplary achievement. The prize list also includes the Best Actor prize awarded to Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho for his restrained and deeply moving role in Wim Wenders’ beautiful Perfect Days. It should also be noted that the Director’s Prize went to the most surprising film in the selection, La Passion de Dodin-Bouffant by Trân Anh Hùng, a tender feature film that is a true declaration of love for traditional French gastronomy. Finally, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a powerful, disturbing film of rare mastery recounting the daily life of Rudolf Höss, director of Auschwitz, and his family in their large villa in the immediate vicinity of the extermination camp, takes home the Grand Prize.

Anatomie d’une chute by Justine Triet
Released in cinemas on 23 august 2023

The complete list of winners:

Palme d’or : Anatomie d’une chute by Justine Triet
Grand Prix : The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer
Director’s Prize : La Passion de Dodin-Bouffant by Trân Anh Hùng
Screenplay Prize : Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Jury Prize : Les Feuilles mortes by Aki Kaurismäki
Best Actress : Merve Dizdar in Les Herbes sèches by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Best Actor : Kōji Yakusho in Perfect Days by Wim Wenders
Palme d’or for Short Film : 27 by Flóra Anna Buda
Caméra d’or : L’Arbre aux papillons d’or by An Pham Thien

THREE OTHER OUTSTANDING FILMS IN THE PARALLEL SELECTIONS 

Occupied City by Steve McQueen (Special screening)

An eclectic filmmaker (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, the mini-series Small Axe…) and a leading figure in contemporary art (winner of the 1999 Turner Prize), British director Steve McQueen was back in Cannes to present a lavish documentary – four and a half hours with an intermission – about his home town, Amsterdam. McQueen has lived in Amsterdam for some fifteen years with his partner, Dutch director and historian Bianca Stigter, and it is she who is behind this fascinating and precise documentary, in which a voice-over (McQueen’s own) unaffectedly describes life in various places, buildings, addresses and squares in the capital of the Netherlands during the German occupation. Steve McQueen chooses not to include any archive footage with these often chilling descriptions. Instead, he films these same places today; or rather, during the recent historical moments that marked the making of the film, such as the COVID-19 crisis, which had a major impact on the city and its buildings. With this fairly simple concept, the filmmaker provokes a clash of images and discourse, offering intense food for thought on the work of memory and the future of a city.

Occupied City di Steve McQueen
Coming soon to cinemas

The Sweet East by Sean Price Williams (Quinzaine des Cinéastes)

The first feature film from a director who has already made a name for himself as a cinematographer emblematic of the new New York independent cinema (notably Alex Ross Perry and the Safdie brothers), The Sweet East is a surprising comedy in the form of a fairy tale set in contemporary America. In this 16mm film, with its signature grainy image, Williams takes us on a road trip through the eastern United States, following the runaway life of a schoolgirl (the impressive Talia Ryder) and her encounters with various colourful characters (including a neo-Nazi college professor with a QAnon bent, played by the brilliant Simon Rex, discovered at Cannes in 2021 in Sean Baker’s Red Rocket). Underneath its baroque and timeless aspects, The Sweet East is certainly the most deliciously contemporary comedy of the festival. 

The Sweet East by Sean Price Williams
Coming soon to cinemas

Le Règne animal by Thomas Cailley (Un certain regard)

It’s been nine years since we’ve been waiting for Thomas Cailley to return to cinema, ever since the terrific Les Combattants, starring Adèle Haenel, released in 2014. The French director made his comeback by opening the Cannes Festival’s Un certain regard selection with Le Règne animal, his second feature film. In this science-fiction tale, which is as intimate as it is spectacular, and uses a host of special effects, Thomas Cailley describes a world where genetic mutations have created hybrid beings, half-human, half-animal. As this strange disease, which turns humans into wild beasts, strikes a family who have taken refuge in the south of France, the individuals will have to learn to live together with their animal brethren.

Carried by an impeccable cast (Romain Duris, Paul Kircher, the ever-perfect Adèle Exarchopoulos, and also Tom Mercier, discovered in Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms), Animal Kingdom boldly ventures into territory little explored by French cinema: the fantastic anticipation story. It offers a fascinating parable on the relationship between man and nature – and we know that Thomas Cailley is very committed to ecological issues (already at the heart of Les Combattants). Animal Kingdom continues in the same vein with this film, written during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having noticed how quickly the population became accustomed to profound changes linked to confinement, such as the appearance of wild boar in the middle of town, the filmmaker and his co-writer Pauline Murier are convinced that humans adapt very quickly. As long as it’s not too late.

Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley
Released in cinemas on 4 October 2023

Pierre Charpilloz