For the third time a woman wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes

2023-05-28 02:08:25

French director Justine Triet won this Saturday the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival for “Anatomie d’une chute”, a courtroom drama, becoming the third established director in the history of the contest. In her speech, the 44-year-old filmmaker criticized the “neoliberal” policy of President Emmanuel Macron and regretted that the movement that opposes the reform of the pension system is “shockingly denied” by the authorities.

Triet also denounced in his speech the “commodification of culture that the neoliberal government defends” and that “it is breaking the French cultural exception.” Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak declared herself “astonished” by these criticisms. “This film would not have seen the light of day without our French film financing model, which allows for a unique diversity in the world. Let’s not forget it,” the authority wrote on Twitter.

The director dedicated her award to young filmmakers and to all those who now cannot shoot because they do not have a space “that I occupied 15 years ago in a world that was less hostile and that allowed us to think that it was possible to be wrong.” The winning film chronicles the trial of a widow (Sandra Hüller) accused of killing her husband in a chalet in the French Alps.

Grand Prize to “The Zone of Interest”

Triet is the third director, after Jane Campion (“The Piano Lesson”, 1993) and Julia Ducournau (“Titanium”, 2021), to win the award, confirming the slow movement towards equality in a film industry dominated by men.

The jury of the prestigious festival awarded the Grand Prize, the second in importance, to a chilling portrait of the daily life of the commandant of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, “The Zone of Interest”, by British director Jonathan Glazer. Meanwhile, the award for best director went to Tran Anh Hung, a Frenchman of Vietnamese origin, for “La passion de Dodin Bouffant,” a fable about a couple of 19th-century chefs.

In addition, the jury consecrated the 36-year-old Turkish girl Merve Dizdar as best actress for “About dry grasses”, set in Anatolia, and the Japanese Koji Yakusho as best actor for his role as a public toilet cleaner in the film “Perfect Days”, by the German director Wim Wenders.

Hours before the award ceremony, the International Federation of Film Critics awarded its own awards: to the Chilean “Los colonos” by Felipe Gálvez (Un Certain Regard section) and the Brazilian “Levante” by Lillah Halla (Critics’ Week).