Justine Triet won the Palme d’Or on Saturday for Anatomy of a fallthe third ever awarded to a female director, and took advantage of the platform to launch an attack on the French government’s policy on culture and pensions.
• Read also: IN PICTURES | The looks that marked the 75e Cannes film festival
• Read also: Charlotte Cardin will sing at the Cannes Film Festival in a show honoring film music
• Read also: These tiktokeurs came to Cannes with dreams of cinema
The 44-year-old filmmaker succeeds Jane Campion (The piano lesson1993) and Julia Ducournau (Titanium2021), confirming the slow movement towards equality in a historically male-dominated film industry.
The Festival opened twelve days ago under the threat of a power cut from the CGT, but it was ultimately through the winner that the social movement in France was invited to Cannes. Receiving her prize from Jane Fonda, the filmmaker strongly denounced the way the French government had “shockingly denied” the protest against the pension reform.
“This pattern of dominating power, increasingly uninhibited, is breaking out in several areas,” she added, believing that the power also sought to “break the cultural exception without which [elle] wouldn’t be here today.
Immediate reply from the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak. She said she was “flabbergasted by his speech so unfair”: “This film could not have seen the light of day without our French model of financing of the cinema which allows a unique diversity in the world. Let’s not forget that,” she wrote on social media.
French cinema in the spotlight
On the artistic level, this new coronation of a young French director testifies to the success of French productions in international festivals, as evidenced by the Golden Lion awarded to Audrey Diwan for The event in Venice in 2021 and the Golden Bear awarded to Nicolas Philibert for On the Adamant in February.
The jury, chaired by Ruben Östlund and on which Julia Ducournau also sat, chose a film (in French cinemas on August 23) which tells the trial of a widow (Sandra Hüller) accused at the assizes of having killed her husband. The opportunity to dissect the power dynamics within an affluent artistic couple and to expose the social prejudices that independent women face.
He also sent a contemporary message about the appalling banality of evil, giving the Grand Prize to Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Intereston the daily life of the Nazi commander of Auschwitz, a radical work.
The prize for directing went to Tran Anh Hùng for The passion of Dodin Bouffantperiod film on French gastronomy with Benoît Magimel, and that of the jury, to Aki Kaurismäki for Dead leaves.
Turkish actress Merve Dizdar dedicated her performance award in dry herbsby Nuri Bilge Ceylan, “to all the women who lead a struggle to overcome the difficulties that exist in this world”.
The Best Actor Award went to Koji Yakusho for his role as a public restroom cleaner in Tokyo in Perfect Daysa dreamlike film by Wim Wenders.
This list puts an end to the 76e edition, chaired for the first time by Iris Knobloch, former Warner.
It was marked by controversy over the return of Johnny Depp, after his defamation trials on accusations of domestic violence, by a strong presence of cinema from the African continent and female directors, beyond Justine Triet.
One of them, Molly Manning Walker, received the Un Certain Regard prize for How To Have Sexand two others share the Golden Eye for Best Documentary: Kadib Abyad (The mother of all lies) and Kaouther Ben Hania (Olfa’s daughterson the radicalization of Tunisian teenage girls).
The edition was also marked by a new demonstration of the honeymoon between Cannes and Hollywood: in 12 days, the red carpet will have welcomed Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (for Killers of the Flower Moon) or even Harrison Ford, who came to say goodbye to IndianaJones. Quentin Tarantino and Roger Corman, 97, one of the deans of American cinema, were also on stage on Saturday evening.
As for the closing feature film, the festival revives the tradition of programming the latest creation from Pixar studios, bought by Disney: the animated film Elementarywhich will be released in June, had its world premiere after the ceremony.