The 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious international film events, took place May 11-22 this year, and the red carpet and audiences were filled with big-name stars from France, the United States and around the world.
With 20 films in competition and 50 films in the official selection, the festival left critics buzzing. Opening night featured Woody Allen’s most recent project, Midnight in Paris, set in the scenic City of lights. It stars Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, with a much talked about cameo by Carla Bruni, who plays a museum tour guide.
This year’s Jury President was American screen legend, Robert De Niro. The official Jury also included American actress, Uma Thurman, French director, Olivier Assayas, and Chadian director, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun whose feature film, A Screaming Man, took home the Jury Prize in Cannes last year.
With a varied selection of films and genres, the festival seeks each year to “draw attention to and raise the profile of films with the aim of contributing towards the development of cinema, boosting the film industry worldwide and celebrating cinema at an international level.”
This year’s top prize, the ’Palme d’Or’ went to The Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick. The film, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, tells the story of a Midwestern American family in the 1950s and follows the complicated relationship between father and son while questioning the meaning of existence. Jury President Robert De Niro said of the film, “It had the size, the importance, the intention, whatever you want to call it, that seemed to fit the prize.”
The runner-up prize was split between Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and The Kid with a Bike, a drama written and directed by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Other top prizes included the Award for Best Director going to Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Best Actress went to Kirsten Dunst for her role in Melancholia, and Jean Dujardin took Best Actor for his role in The Artist.
For the complete list of winners and more information about this year’s Cannes Film Festival, visit: http://www.festival-cannes.com
Photo : © photo by Jerry Schatzberg – Artwork: H5 (M. Lelièvre, B. Parienté)
