Winners at the 2017 Cannes film festival
CANNES, France: Here are the winners from the 2017 Cannes film festival, as chosen Sunday by a star-studded jury led by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.
Palme d’Or: ‘The Square’
Swedish film ‘ The Square’, a dark satire of the contemporary art world, was the surprise winner of the top Palme d’Or prize at the world’s biggest film festival.
The film, a savagely funny takedown of political correctness and the things we choose to hang in art galleries, had premiered to strong reviews -- but even director Ruben Ostlund was shocked as he picked up the award, shouting, “Oh my God, oh my God!”
Grand Prix: ‘120 Beats Per Minute’
‘120 Beats Per Minute’, a moving drama set in Paris at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s, scooped second prize for its wrenching portrayal of a romance between two activists in the advocacy group ACT UP.
The film was a deeply personal project for director Robin Campillo, who was himself an activist in the French branch of the group that helped shame the world into action.
Jury Prize: ‘Loveless’
‘ Loveless’, a bleak tale of a middle- class couple in Moscow looking to offload their child as they go through a bitter divorce, came in third.
The film by Kremlin critic Andrei Zvyagintsev offers a stinging critique of modern Russian society, depicting a country obsessed with consumerism and its smartphones.
Best actor: Joaquin Phoenix
Triple Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix won best actor for playing a traumatised hitman in Lynne Ramsay’s ultra-violent ‘You Were Never Really Here’.
He gives an electrifying performance as Joe, a former soldier who is hired by a New York state senator to rescue his daughter from a paedophile ring.
Best actress: Diane Kruger
In her first film role in her native German, Hollywood star and former model Diane Kruger swapped her usually glamorous image to play a mother who vows revenge after her ethnic Kurdish husband and son are killed in a neo-Nazi attack.
Best director: Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola picked up best director for her remake of the American Civil War thriller ‘The Beguiled’, starring Colin Farrell as a soldier who bewitches several Southern women including Nicole Kidman.
Collecting her award, the ‘ Bling Ring’ director thanked her father -- ‘Apocalypse Now’ director Francis Ford Coppola -- for teaching her the tricks of the trade.
Best screenplay: Lynne Ramsay and Yorgos Lanthimos
The nine- member jury opted to split the screenplay prize in two, dividing it between Scottish director Lynne Ramsay for ‘ You Were Never Really Here’ and Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos for ‘ The Killing of a Sacred Deer’, a chilling suburban thriller starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman.
Special Kidman’ prize: ‘ Nicole
Nicole Kidman was the undisputed queen of this year’s Cannes with four projects showing. To mark its 70th birthday, the festival rewarded her with a special prize. — AFP