The prizes at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival have been dished out, with this year’s jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, giving top honours to Abdellatif Kechiche’s romantic drama Blue Is the Warmest Color. In a historic move, Cannes’ top award (usually presented to the director of the official competition’s best feature), was presented jointly to Kechiche and the two leads in his film, French actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. In their review of Blue Is the Warmest Color last week Variety said of the film:
“It’s a simple, even predictable story, yet textured so exquisitely and acted so forcefully as to feel almost revelatory.”
Variety also noted:
“Post-screening chatter will inevitably swirl around not only the galvanizing performances of Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, but also the fact that they spend much of this three-hour emotional epic enacting the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory.“
In a post-ceremony press conference Steven Spielberg echoed the critical sentiments, describing the picture as “a great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning. The director didn’t put any constraints on the narrative. He let the scenes play in real life, and we were absolutely spellbound.” On the jury’s decision to award the Palme d’Or to actors as well as the director Spielberg commented: “If the casting had been even 3% wrong, it wouldn’t have worked in the same way. All of us felt we needed to invite all three artists to the stage together.” As well as Spielberg this year’s jury included Nicole Kidman, directors Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay and Naomi Kawase, and actors Christoph Waltz, Daniel Auteuil and Vidya Balan.
The Grand Prix award, effectively Cannes’ second place, was awarded to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, a musical comedy-drama about the 1960s New York folk scene that was one of Cannes’ most-talked about films. Other major winners included Amat Escalante (Best Director – Heli), Bruce Dern (Best Actor – Nebraska), Berenice Bejo (Best Actress – The Past), Jia Zhangke (Best Screenplay – A Touch of Sin).
The full list of award winners follows:
MAIN JURY PRIZES
Palme d’Or: Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, director; Adele Exarchopoulos France)
Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S.)
Director: Amat Escalante, Heli (Mexico)
Jury prize: Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska (Alexander Payne, U.S.)
Actress: Berenice Bejo, The Past (Asghar Farhadi, France-Italy)
Screenplay: Jia Zhangke, A Touch of Sin (China)
UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY PRIZES
Main prize: The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh, Cambodia-France)
Jury prize: Hany Abu-Assad, Omar (Palestine)
Director: Alain Guiraudie, Stranger by the Lake (France)
Future prize: Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler, U.S.)
A Certain Talent prize: Ensemble cast of La jaula de oro (Diego Quemada-Diaz, Mexico-Spain)
OTHER JURY PRIZES
Camera d’Or: Ilo ilo (Anthony Chen, Singapore)
Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award: Me Myself and Mum (Guillaume Gallienne, France)
Directors’ Fortnight Europa Cinemas Label: The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, U.K.)
Directors’ Fortnight SACD Prize: Me Myself and Mum
Critics’ Week Grand Prix: Salvo (Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, Italy)
Critics’ Week Visionary Prize: Salvo
Critics’ Week Special Mention: The Owners (Agustin Toscano, Ezequiel Radusky, Argentina)
Critics’ Week SACD Prize for Screenplay: Le Demantelement (Sebastien Pilote, Canada)
Short Films Palme d’Or: Safe (Moon Byoung-gon, South Korea)
Ecumenical Jury Prize: The Past (Asghar Farhadi, France-Italy)
FIPRESCI PRIZES
Competition: Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, France)
Un Certain Regard: Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran)
Directors’ Fortnight: Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, U.S.)
