Fjord, by Cristian Mungiu, has won the Palme d’Or at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The film focuses on the complex relationship between a Romanian-Norwegian religious fundamentalist couple and their neighbors in a remote fjord village. The Javis, with The Black Ball, inspired by an unfinished work by Federico García Lorca, won the award for best direction. The award was shared ex aequo with Pawel Pawlikowski, for Fatherland, where the Oscar-winning Polish filmmaker portrays the relationship between writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika. The other two Spanish films competing in the main contest, Bitter Christmas, by Pedro Almodóvar, and The Beloved, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, left empty-handed.
Minotaur, by Andrey Zvyagintsev, received the Grand Jury Prize. The film stars a successful businessman whose life begins to collapse, with the war in Ukraine and criticism of corruption in Russia as the backdrop. The Russian author thus reinforces a celebrated film career with works such as Leviathan Returns or Loveless.
The award for best male performance went to Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, protagonists of Coward, by Lucas Dhont. The film, set in 1916, narrates the horror of the First World War and how two soldiers try to avoid it. And the recognition for best female performance also went to a duo: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Both play the two central characters of All of a sudden, by Ryusuke Hamaguchi: the film unfolds precisely from the friendship between the French head of a nursing home and a Japanese theater director suffering from cancer.
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The jury prize, presided over by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, went to The Dreamed Adventure, a stark western by German Valeska Grisebach about the borders of Bulgaria. And the award for best screenplay went to Emmanuel Marre, who directed and wrote Notre Salut, set in Nazi-occupied France in 1940 and recounting the experiences of Henri Marre, the filmmaker’s great-grandfather.
Argentine director Federico Luis received the award for best short film for For the Opponents. And the Caméra d’Or, for the most outstanding first feature of the entire festival, went to Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, for Ben Imana, which competed in the Un Certain Regard section.
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