Cristian Mungiu’s complex moral drama “Fjord,” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, won the Palme d’Or for best picture at the Cannes Film Festival, making the Romanian writer-director the 10th filmmaker to win the coveted award twice – 19 years after his first win for “Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days.” The film, about a Romanian evangelical Christian family who falls foul of the Norwegian social system and becomes involved in a child abuse scandal, was one of the most hotly debated titles in the competition, with critics divided on its merits and sociopolitical allegiance, but its apparent ease of discussion united the jury, led by Korean writer Park Chan-wook.
Mungiu was typically modest when he accepted Palme’s proposal. “All awards are context sensitive,” he said. “It’s a great thing for us that you’ve given me this award and I feel very happy. But you have to wait 10, 20 years to see these movies again. Then maybe you’ll understand which movies were really great and managed to survive the test of time.”
The critic was a fan of the film (Mungiu’s first film to be set and filmed entirely outside of his home country), calling it “a brilliant new drama about systemic order and personal chaos that, despite its crisp new setting, immediately feels like a product of his more exploratory, bristling work” and praising Stan and Reinsve’s “measured, tightly gripped performances”. The win is also a major coup for Neon, Fjord’s U.S. distributor, which has extended its Palme winning streak to seven years in a row, starting with eventual Oscar winner 2019’s Parasite, and is sure to heighten expectations for future awards for Mungiu’s films.
This victory was not completely unexpected. Many thought exiled Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev, now based in France, would triumph with his first film in nine years, the icy anti-Putin neo-noir Minotaur, making a grand comeback after a near-death battle with the coronavirus a few years ago. In the end, Zvyagintsev had to be content with the Grand Prix, the festival’s second most prestigious award, but a Mubi-backed title seems likely. A modern remake of Claude Chabrol’s erotic thriller The Unfaithful Wife, the film is set in Russia, near the center of Putin’s war against Ukraine, but was filmed entirely in Latvia due to political necessity.
Among the European-dominated winners, the two films that shared the Best Director award were historical visionaries with contrasting styles. “Fatherland,” by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s meticulous evocation of post-war Germany, and “Black Ball,” Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosi’s expansive, stylized ode to queer life and love lost to fascism, spans eras. The prism of Federico García Lorca’s poetry.
The tie resulted in the funniest moment of the awards show, with the three directors shuffling in confusion on stage, prompting director Pawlikowski to quip, “This is a disastrous mise-en-scène!” But they were also two of the most moving speeches of the night. Spanish filmmakers known locally as Los Javis paid tribute to their queer predecessors, saying with emotion: “The only way we can honor the suffering, silence and death of the LGBTQ people who came before us is to guarantee the same or even greater freedom for the next generation.”
Pawlikowski, on the other hand, spoke with precision and passion about the need for a nuanced understanding of political cinema. “We live and breathe politics. Films should reflect that, but not on the terms dictated by politicians and activists. It takes courage to stand up to dictators and bullies, but it also takes courage to stand up to noise, algorithms, and peer pressure.”
Meanwhile, Los Javis weren’t the only duo honored on the night, where the artistry of their collaboration was particularly celebrated. Both acting awards went to two co-stars, Frenchwoman Virginie Efira and Japanese star Tao Okamoto (the only non-European to win the Jury Prize for a film that fuses French and Japanese cultures), directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. She shared the Best Actress award for her role in the critically acclaimed film “All of a Sudden,” playing a pair of finely calibrated dialogue roles as a care home caretaker and an experimental theater director who find deep and unexpected bonds through their respective jobs.
Meanwhile, young star Valentin Campagne and newcomer Emmanuelle Macchia of Belgian director Lukas Dhondt’s World War I drama “Coward” stunned when they jointly won Best Actor for their poignantly sensitive portrayals of soldiers turned lovers on the Western Front. Their giddy, enthusiastic speeches as Campagne literally jumped into the arms of his co-stars were the joyous high of the ceremony.
German director Valeska Griesebach may have been the only winner of the Jury Prize for her ambitious, experimental, documentary-influenced crime drama “Dreams”, but she doesn’t see herself that way, calling star Jana Radeva on stage as her most valuable collaborator. Meanwhile, Frenchman Emmanuel Marr won the award for best screenplay for the competition’s other most outstanding and unconventional work, the French resistance drama Man of the Ages.
Surprisingly, the Camera d’Or for best film in all categories at the festival went to Rwandan director Marie-Clementine Dusabe-Jumbo’s heartfelt debut feature Ben Imana. It’s a welcome reversal after the film was given a complete blank by the Un Certain Regard jury last night. It was a welcome victory for African cinema on such a Eurocentric night.
But in a year marked by the general absence of American films—two titles in national competition, James Gray’s The Paper Tiger and Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, both went unfilled—the awards encapsulated the festival’s main themes this year. “The Fjord,” “The Minotaur,” “My Dreams,” “The Homeland,” and “All of a Sudden” were all about film as a global, exploratory medium. Some are made by filmmakers who are dealing with the theme of displacement on screen or forging connections with new and national cinemas.
competition
Palme d’Or: “Fjord” Christian Munge
Grand Prix: “Minotaur” Andrei Zvyagintsev
Jury Prize: “Dream Adventure” Valeska Griesebach
Best Director: (tie) Javier Calva, Javier Ambrossi, The Black Ball. Pavel Pavlikovsky “Fatherland”
Best Actress: Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto “All of aquir”
Best Actor: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Maquia, “Coward”
Best Original Screenplay: Emmanuel Mare, “A Man of the Ages”
Other prizes
Camera d’Or: “Ben’Imana” Marie-Clementine Desabet-Jumbo
Short Film Palme d’Or: “For the Opponents” Federico Ruiz
Prior to tonight’s ceremony, the following awards were also announced at the festival:
Honorary Palme d’Or Award: Peter Jackson. Barbra Streisand. john travolta
Please note
Un Certain Regard Award: “Everytime” Sandra Wallner
Jury Award: “Elephant in the Mist” by Avinash Bikram Shah
Special Jury Award: “Iron Boy” Louis Clichy
Best Actress: Daniela Marin Navarro, Marina de Tavira, Mariajel Villegas “Forever a Mother Animal”
Best Actor: Bradley Fiomona Dembersett, “Congo Boy”
directors fortnite
European Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film: “Too Many Beasts” Sarah Arnold
SACD Award for Best French Film: “Shana” Shana Pinel
Audience Choice Award: “I See Buildings Falling Like Lightning” Clio Bernard
Carrosse d’Or: Claire Denis
critics week
Grand Prize: “La Gradiva” Marin Atran
GAN Foundation Distribution Award: “A Girl Unknown” Zou Jing (Pyramid Distribution)
Rising Star Award: Aina Clotet “Alive”
SACD Award: Blerta Bascioli, Nicole Borger “Dua”
Canal+ Best Short Film: “Bataland, or a Boule Named Yant” by Bertolt Wajdi
Discovery Award for Best Short Film: Romain F. Dubois, “Skinny Boots”
immersive competition
Best Immersive Film: “Katábasis” by Hugo Arsac
Special Award: “The Black Mirror Experience”, David Bardos, Damia Ferrandis
Cinefondation Award
Grand Prize: “Laser-Cat” by Lucas Archer (New York, USA)
2nd place: “Silent Voices”, Nadine Mison Jin (Columbia University, USA)
3rd place: (TIE) “Never Enough”, Julius Laguthe Larsen (La Femi, France). “Growing Stones, Flying Papers” Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi (Conrad Wolff Film School Babelsberg, Germany)
Other awards
Loeil d’Or Documentary Award: “Rehearsal for the Revolution” Pega Ahangarani
GoldenEye Special Jury Award: “The Tin Castle” Alexander Murphy
Queer Palm: Teenage Sex and Death in Miasma Camp, Jane Schoenbrunn
Queer Palm Discovery Award: “Body and Fuel” Pierre Le Gall
Queer Palm short film “Silent Voice” by Nadine Myson Jin
FIPRESCI Award (Competition): “Fjord”, Cristian Mungiu
FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard): “Ben’Imana” Marie-Clementine Desabet-Jumbo
FIPRESCI Award (Parallel Category): “A Girl Unknown” Jin Zou
Ecumenical Jury Prize: “Fjord”, Cristian Mungiu
Cannes Soundtrack Award: Evgeny & Sasha Galperin “Minotaur”
François Chalet Prize: “Fjord” Christian Munge
Citizenship Award: “Fjord”, Cristian Mungiu
AFCAE Arthouse Film Award: “A Man of Our Time” Emmanuel Mare
Cinema Positive Award: “Coward” Lucas Don
Palm dog: Yuri “La Pera”
Palm Dog Honorable Mention: Laura, “I see buildings falling like lightning.”
Chopard Female Revelation of the Year Trophy: Odessa Azion
Chopard Trophy “Male Revelation of the Year”: Connor Swindells
