The 70th anniversary Cannes Film Festival has wrapped, culminating with an unconventional awards ceremony in which Pedro Almodóvar and his jury awarded several extra prizes, including a tie for screenplay and a special award to Nicole Kidman, who appeared in four projects in this year’s official selection, including competition titles “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and “The Beguiled,” season two of “Top of the Lake” and special screening “How to Talk to Girls at Parties.”
Meanwhile, the fabled Palme d’Or went to Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s cutting art-world (and real-world) satire “The Square.” The award was something of a surprise, if only because the masterful, 142-minute film has been quite divisive, and jury prizes rely on consensus. In “The Square,” a posh museum curator who wines and dines wealthy donors is forced to confront the unwashed lower classes after having his pockets picked on the way to work.
The Grand Prix went to “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” director Robin Campillo’s wrenching, deeply humanistic look at the early-’90s war on AIDS, set on the front lines of the French gay-rights movement, in which the members of ACT UP-Paris take on pharmaceutical companies, politicians and bureaucratic institutions slow to acknowledge the devastating toll of the disease. “BPM” marks French director Campillo’s first time in competition, although he had a hand in the creation of a previous Palme d’Or winner as co-writer of Laurent Cantet’s “The Class.”
Best director went to Sofia Coppola for “The Beguiled,” a female-driven adaptation of Thomas Cullinan’s Civil War novel, about a wounded Union soldier who takes refuge in a Virginia girls’ school.
In its first surprise of the evening, the jury awarded a tie for screenplay to “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (co-written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou) and Lynne Ramsay for “You Were Never Really Here.”
The Jury Prize went to “Loveless” by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who uses the search for a missing child to take a cold, hard look at all that is rotten in modern-day Russia — and the world.
Diane Kruger earned best actress for her role in Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade,” a tour-de-force performance in which the German-born actress tackled her first starring role in her native language. In accepting the prize, she acknowledged anyone who, like her character, “has survived an act of terrorism and who is trying to pick up the pieces and go on living after having lost everything. Please know that you are not forgotten.”
A stunned-looking Joaquin Phoenix accepted best actor honors for “You Were Never Really Here,” appearing on stage in a pair of Converse sneakers.
The Camera d’Or, awarded to best first film from any section of the entire festival, went to Léonor Serraille for “Jeune femme” (Montparnasse-Bienvenüe), which premiered in Un Certain Regard. The Paris-set film offers a lively, turbulent portrait of a young French woman disoriented by a recent breakup, which La Femis graduate Serraille directed while pregnant.
Almodóvar presided over a jury that included German director Maren Ade, American actress Jessica Chastain, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, French multi-hyphenate Agnès Jaoui, South Korean director Park Chan-wook, American megastar Will Smith, Italian director Paolo Sorrentino and French composer Gabriel Yared.
COMPETITION
Palme d’Or: “The Square” (Ruben Östlund)
Special Prize: Nicole Kidman
Grand Prix: “BPM (Beats Per Minute)” (Robin Campillo)
Director: Sofia Coppola, “The Beguiled”
Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, “You Were Never Really Here”
Actress: Diane Kruger, “In the Fade”
Jury Prize: “Loveless” (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Screenplay — TIE: “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou) and “You Were Never Really Here” (Lynne Ramsay)
OTHER PRIZES
Camera d’Or: “Jeune femme” (Montparnasse-Bienvenüe) (Léonor Serraille)
Short Films Palme d’Or: “Xiao Cheng Er Yue” (Qiu Yang)
Short Films Special Mention: “Katto” (Teppo Airaksinen)
Golden Eye Documentary Prize: “Faces Places” (Visages Villages) (Agnès Varda, JR)
Ecumenical Jury Prize: “Radiance” (Naomi Kawase)
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Un Certain Regard Award: “A Man of Integrity,” Mohammad Rasoulof
Best Director: Taylor Sheridan, “Wind River”
Jury Prize: Michel Franco, “April’s Daughter”
Best Performance: Jasmine Trinca, “Fortunata”
Award for Poetry of Cinema: Mathieu Amalric, “Barbara”
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
Art Cinema Award: “The Rider” (Chloe Zhao)
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize — TIE: “Lover for a Day” (Philippe Garrel) and “Let the Sunshine In” (Claire Denis)
Europa Cinemas Label: “A Ciambra” (Jonas Carpignano)
CRITICS’ WEEK
Grand Prize: “Makala” (Emmanuel Gras)
Visionary Prize: “Gabriel and the Mountain” (Fellipe Barbosa)
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Ava” (Léa Mysius)
FIPRESCI
Competition: “BPM (Beats Per Minute)”
Un Certain Regard: “Closeness” (Kantemir Balagov)
Directors’ Fortnight: “The Nothing Factory” (Pedro Pinho)