The 76th Cannes Film Festival concludes this Saturday evening, completing the circle as it began, in the company of those immortal Hollywood icons who will ascend the podium to bestow the most illustrious laurels of the seventh art. Following a hotly contested competition, the Festival announced on Saturday that actress and activist Jane Fonda will award the Palme d’Or. Prior to this, the Grand Prix will be conferred by renowned directors Quentin Tarantino and Roger Corman, who at 97 is one of the oldest figures in American cinema.
Listen to the article
This is further evidence of the strong bond between Cannes and Hollywood: over the course of twelve days, big names like Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro (for Killers of the Flower Moon), as well as Harrison Ford (who bid farewell to Indiana Jones) have traversed the red carpet.
Yet, despite the abundance of stars present, the recipients of the awards still remain unknown. The jury, chaired by Östlund, who won his second Palme last year, must select from 21 directors, seven of whom are women. The eight-person jury consists of director Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or 2021 for Titane), actress Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi, and actor Denis Ménochet.
Several films are in the lead: Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, a festival regular and appreciated by Östlund, was highly praised for his film The Falling Leaves, a sorrowful romance between two solitary individuals in a rainy, working-class Finland.
The unveiling of the awards could have a decidedly political dimension, should the jury decide to honor British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer and his striking work, Zone of Interest. This film of remarkable mastery confronts us with the unbearable “banality of evil,” clinically portraying the nonchalant daily life of the family of the commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp.
His British counterpart, 86-year-old Ken Loach, might enter the cinematic pantheon in his lifetime if he manages to become the first filmmaker to secure a third Palme d’Or, following his triumphs for The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016). He was the last to ascend the palace stairs on Friday evening, with his film The Old Oak, which depicts the reception of Syrian refugees in the UK.
On the performance awards front, German actress Sandra Hüller, catapulted onto the international stage at Cannes with Toni Erdmann (2016), emerges as a serious contender. She shines in two films, embodying the wife of the Nazi commander in Zone of Interest, and a widow accused of her husband’s homicide in Anatomy of a Fall.
This latter film, a meticulously structured two-and-a-half-hour drama, is one of the favorites among international critics. If it were to snatch the Palme d’Or, director Justin Triet would join the small circle of female directors honored at Cannes, following Jane Campion (The Piano, 1993) and Julia Ducournau.
Beyond these awards, the closing ceremony, orchestrated by Chiara Mastroianni and broadcast from 20:30 on France Télévisions and Brut, signifies the denouement of the 76th edition of the Festival. For the first time, the presidency was held by Iris Knobloch, a former member of Warner.
This edition was punctuated by controversies surrounding the return of Johnny Depp, following his defamation trials linked to accusations of domestic violence, but also by a strong presence of African cinema and emerging female directors. One of them, Molly Manning Walker, was awarded the Un Certain Regard prize for How To Have Sex, and two others shared the Golden Eye for best documentary: Kadib Abyad for The Mother of All Lies and Kaouther Ben Hania for Olfa’s Girls, which deals with the radicalization of Tunisian teenagers, also in the running for the Palme d’Or.
The Queer Palm, an alternative award for the best LGBT film, was bestowed upon Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, which was also part of the official competition.
With AFP
