The Cannes Film Festival awarded its Palme d’or on Saturday to Frenchwoman Justine Triet for Anatomy of a fallrewarding for only the third time in its history a female director.
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.
Upon receiving her award, the filmmaker strongly denounced the way the French government “shockingly denied” the movement against 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.
Justine Triet reaches the top of the cinema after four films, including Sibylalready selected at Cannes and as many portraits of women.
French cinema in the spotlight
This new coronation of a young French director also testifies to the success of French productions in international festivals, with the Golden Lion awarded to Audrey Diwan in 2021 in Venice for The event and the Golden Bear in February to Nicolas Philibert for On the adamant.
The jury, chaired by Ruben Östlund and where Julia Ducournau also sat, chose a film 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.
The jury also sent a contemporary message about the appalling banality of evil, awarding 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 Bouffanta period 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 herbs by Nuri Bilge Ceylan “to all the women who lead a struggle to overcome the difficulties existing 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.
Before the screenplay award was given to Sakamoto Yuji for Monster of Kore-eda, the American actor John C. Reilly was silent on stage in tribute “to all those who write and give birth to great films”, in the midst of a strike by screenwriters in Hollywood.
The Swedish Ruben Östlund jury had to decide between 21 filmmakers, including 7 female directors. 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 young female directors.
One of them, Molly Manning Walker received the Un Certain Regard prize for How To Have Sex, and 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 “Indiana Jones”.
As for the closing film, the festival revives the tradition of programming the latest creation from Pixar studios, bought by Disney: the animated film Éelementarywhich will be released in June, had its world premiere after the ceremony.