The 72nd edition of the festival wrapped up tonight with Bong-Joon Hu’s Parasite winning the Palme d’Or. Bong becomes the first Korean director to win the award. Jury president Alejandro González Iñárritu had this to say about the jury’s collective decision to award Parasite with the prize: ”We all shared the mystery of the unexpected way this film took us through different genres and spoke in a funny, humorous, tender way — with no judgment.”
Bong-Joon Hu wasn’t the only filmmaker to make history at the festival tonight. French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop won the Grand Prix for her debut feature, Atlantics. Diop is the first black female filmmaker in the competition. Juror Elle Fanning called the film “a beautiful fable…Though it deals with [these issues], it also felt personal and vulnerable, very emotional and just quite precious.”
Best Actress went to British rising star Emily Beecham for Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe. Antonio Banderas walked away with the Best Actor for his leading role in Pedro Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical Pain and Glory. Dedicating the award to Almodóvar, Banderas said, “People think we live in a red carpet, but it’s not true. We suffer a lot, we sacrifice, and there is a lot of pain behind an actor of any kind. But there is also glory, and this is my night of glory.” Banderas also added that “The best is still to come.”
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne took the Best Director prize for Young Ahmed, a film which follows a Muslim teenager living in modern Belgium who attempts to kill his teacher after being brainwashed. The Jury Prize was shared by both Les Miserables and Bacurau. Writer-director Celine Sciamma won the screenplay award for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a lesbian period romance drama that was one of the festival’s most critically acclaimed films.
Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, and Abdellatif Kechiche’s three-and-a-half-hour Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo, all left empty-handed.
The winners:
Palme d’Or: “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho
Grand Prix: “Atlantique,” Mati Diop
Best Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, “Young Ahmed”
Best Screenplay: Celine Sciamma, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
Best Actor: Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”
Best Actress: Emily Beecham, “Little Joe”
Jury Prize: (TIE) “Bacurau,” Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles; and “Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly
Special Mention: Elia Suleiman, “It Must Be Heaven”
Camera d’Or: “Our Mothers” (“Nuestras Madres”), Cesar Diaz
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