The 70th Cannes Film Festival took place May 17th through the 28th this year on the Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes, France. Pedro Almodóvar was the head judge along with four male and four female judges that included Jessica Chastain, Will Smith, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, Paolo Sorrentino, Park Chan-wook, Agnès Jaoui, Maren Ade and Gabriel Yared. This year the Un Certain Regard award was headed by Uma Thurman and Barry Jenkins judged short and student films.
Besides the judges, the guest list was star studded to say the least. Attendees included Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Elle Fanning, Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Elisabeth Moss, Susan Sarandon, Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Pattinson, Rihanna, Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
A hot topic of the festival was support of women in the film industry. Sofia Coppola became the second female director to win the Best Director Award at the festival for her new film “The Beguiled” starred Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Collin Farrell, as well as newcomer Emma Howard. The first woman to win was Russian director Yuliya Solntseva in 1961. Coppola said in a statement that she remade the movie to highlight the women’s point of view and thanks Focus Features and Universal for “their support of women driven films.”
Women in Motion welcomed more than 300 guests to a discussion on the role of women in film. French actress Isabelle Huppert spoke at the Women in Motion Dinner about sexism in the film industry and the voices of women in the industry. Huppert said, “Seventy years, 76 Palme d’Ors, but only one has gone to a woman.” In 2012, no female director had their film featured at Cannes, but this year there are 12 films by female directors, which is three more than last year. Huppert received the Women in Motion Award at the dinner for her creative boldness, career and her ability to inspire generations of talent.
Actress and Juror at this year’s festival, Jessica Chastin, also made a statement about female representation in films. At the closing press conference for the festival, Chastin said that after watching the many films at the festival, “The one thing I really took away from this experience is how the world views women from the female characters that I saw represented. It was quite disturbing to me, to be honest.”
Clint Eastwood also made an appearance at the festival from May 19th to the 21st. Eastwood was a President of the Jury in 1994, but visited this year to present the restored copy of “Unforgiven” and to conduct a discussion about his films during the 70th Anniversary Masterclass. Eastwood’s films has been featured during the past few decades with his first appearance in 1985, following five other appearances, the last in 2008. During the masterclass, Eastwood said, “Cinema is completely emotional; it’s not intellectual at all. An example: I like playing golf, but I don’t want to have to play golf. It’s the same with directing.”
Moncler partnered with amfAR for the Cimema Against AIDS Gala Benefit, the most eagerly anticipated charity event of the Canes Film Festival. The party took place on May 25th at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Cap d’Antibes, which overlooks the sea on a picturesque stretch of the Côte d’Azur. The theme of the event was 1920s Hollywood in a cosmopolitan and sophisticated atmosphere of those years. Carine Roitfeld curated the show of exclusive models created by designers from prestigious fashion houses, which include Moncler Gamme Rouge. All of the clothing will be auctioned during the event to raise funds for amfAR. President of Moncler, Remo Ruffini, said in a statement, “We have been collaborating with amfAR for several years because I firmly believe in their ‘Countdown to a Cure’ project, which is aimed at finding a cure for AIDS by 2020.”
On May 28th, the awards for the Film Festival were announced at the Awards Ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. French actress Juliette Binoche had the honor of awarding the Palme d’Or for feature films-the highest prize-to Swedish director Ruben Östlund for his film “The Square.” The same film also received the Vulcain Prize for Artist Technician, awarded to Joefin Asberg. Nicole Kidman was featured in four films presented at the festival and received the 70th Anniversary Award.
The Best Performance by An Actor was awarded to Joaquin Phoenix for his role in “You Were Never Really Here” by Lynne Ramsay. Phoenix admitted in his acceptance speech that “This was totally unexpected, as you can see from my shoes.” The actor was dressed in a tux and black Converse sneakers. The movie was also awarded Best Screenplay along with “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou.
See the full list of winners below.
FEATURE FILMS
PALME D’OR : “The Square” by Ruben Östlund
70TH ANNIVERSARY AWARD : Nicole Kidman
GRAND PRIX : “120 Battements Par Minute” (BPM – Beats Per Minute) by Robin Campillo
BEST DIRECTOR : Sofia Coppola for “The Beguiled”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR : Joaquin Phoenix in “You Were Never Really Here” by Lynne Ramsay
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS : Dianne Kruger in “Aus Dem Nichts” (In the Fade) by Fatih Akin
JURY PRIZE : “Nelybov” (Loveless) by Andrey Zvyagintsev
BEST SCREENPLAY EX-ÆQUO : Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and Lynne Ramsay for “You Were Never Really Here”
SHORT FILMS
PALME D’OR : “Xiao Cheng Er Yue” (A Gentle Night) by Qiu Yang
MENTION DISTINCTION BY THE JURY : “Katto” (The Ceiling) by Teppo Airaksinen
CAMÈRA D’OR
“Jeune Femme” (Montparnasse Bienvenüe) by Léonor Serraille
The 20th Cinéfoundation selection chose from 16 student films from 626 different film schools from around the world. First prize went to the director of “Paul Est Là” (Paul is Here) by Valentine Maurel from Belguim. Besides a cash prize for first, second and third place, the first place winner gets the guarantee of their first feature film to be presented at the festival.
