Cannes Film Festival Winners

[FilmFan720]

I believe there is a new rule, post Dancer in the Dark, that the Palme d'Or winner cannot be awarded another prize.

[Okri]

My understanding is that you can award one film an acting award and something else, but beyond that you need special permission. Rosetta, Dancer in the Dark, The Piano, and Secrets and Lies all won the Palme while winning best actress. Last year, Beyond the Hills won screenplay and best actress.

[Eric]

Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake, which was shown out of competition.

[Bog]

fantasizing about double lead acting nominations for the lesbian art-porn epic and the gay art-porn epic

Sorry I'm being dense... what film is the latter?

[Eric]

Not a ton, but...two weeks ago, our only candidates were under costumes, design and visual effects. It's fun to see things at least begin to stir.

The prospect of Payne once again middlebrow smarming his way to a bunch of nominations fills me with no delight. I'm just going to be over here for the next few months, fantasizing about double lead acting nominations for the lesbian art-porn epic and the gay art-porn epic.

FWIW, Paramount is reportedly mulling over pushing Dern in supporting: http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/d ... -this-year

[Reza]

Redford should be a welcome name on the ballot. I think he has a solid chance considering he got universal raves. Don't think he has ever been praised so much for any of his previous performances. And he has never won Best Actor.

[Mister Tee]

And, to drift a moment to the more mundane "how will all this affect the Oscars?" topic...

As people are saying elsewhere, this looks like it will end the three-year trend of the Palme D'Or winner getting a best picture nod. Though I seem to remember some people thinking that last year, and look what happened.

But there was certainly plenty of action in the best actor category, with Bruce Dern and Robert Redford stepping up as solid candidates -- the latter a total surprise. Toss them in with now Emmy-favorite Michael Douglas, and it was a pretty good week for guys who've been famous since the 70s.

Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska have at least screenplay possibilities, and might qualify for best picture in the expanded field. And the Squibb lady seems like she might have a supporting actress shot, as well.

Not a ton, but...two weeks ago, our only candidates were under costumes, design and visual effects. It's fun to see things at least begin to stir.

[Sabin]

I'm awful at predicting the Cannes winners. I'm pretty sure last year I predicted Holy Motors, which won nothing. In 2011, I think I predicted Le Havre, which won nothing. And in 2010, I think I might have predicted Uncle Boonmee but I'm pretty sure I called a few awards for Another Year, which won nothing.

This year, my predictions (which I didn't post) were about as close as I've ever been. Usually, there's one or two awards where the films seem destined to be buried to some back corner of wiki-hell. That would seem to be Amat Escalante for the poorly (which means nothing) received Heli. Jia Zhangke winning for writing is a bit baffling. I don't know if anyone would have predicted that.

My predictions were:
Palme d’Or – Blue is the Warmest Color
Grand Prix – Inside Llewyn Davis
Jury Prize – Like Father, Like Son
Best Actor – Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
Best Actress – Lea Seydoux & Adele Exharchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Director – Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty
Best Screenplay – Asghar Farhadi The Past

It seemed as though everybody had some variation on that. I had thought about switching Berenice Bejo for the Blue... actresses because The Past seems too major a film to "only" win for writing, and a win for Blue... IS a win for the actresses (and then they honored the actresses as well) and also because unless I'm mistaken the last time a film that won the Palme won more than one award was Gus Van Sant's Elephant also for Best Director (then again, look at that slate today and pretty slim pickings). I also thought about switching to Best Director to James Gray for The Immigrant which apparently Spielberg adored. I'll bet that the award most people were sure about was Michael Douglas for Behind the Candelabra, which went to Bruce Dern for whom I hadn't read a lot of brilliant notices. If not Douglas, then certainly Oscar Isaacs which would have been an award for the film itself which would have cleared the Grand Prix up for something else because the likelihood of the Coen film winning two major awards in a field of pretty well-regarded films isn't likely. Predicting Cannes is a maddening little game of Tetris.

[Mister Tee]

I watched the live-stream, and, according to Spielberg's announcement, the jury had taken the "extraordinary step" of awarding the Palme not just to Kekiche but to his two lead actresses, as well. Their way of circumventing the "Palme's can't win for acting" edict. The ovation the three received was the longest and loudest I've ever witnessed at a Cannes closing ceremony.

Many years, the prize-giving diverges wildly from the feeling in the air -- I remember John Harkness, one year while he was here, saying after the results that "The jury clearly went insane". But here, aside from the Heli win, the outcomes seem in line with the buzz we've been hearing. Maybe having so many Oscar veterans on the jury pointed the consensus toward the more predictable.

[anonymous1980]

Palme d’Or: Blue is the Warmest Color, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Grand Prix of the Jury: Inside Llewyn Davis, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Prix de la Mise en Scene (Best Director): Amat Escalante for Heli

Prix du Scenario (Best Screenplay): Jia Zhangke for A Touch Of Sin

Camera d’Or (Best First Feature): Ilo Ilo, directed by Anthony Chen

Prix du Jury (Jury Prize): Like Father, Like Son, directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu

Prix d’interpretation feminine (Best Actress): Berenice Bejo for Le Passe by Asghar Farhadi

Prix d’interpretation masculine (Best Actor): Bruce Dern in Nebraska by Alexander Payne

Palme d’Or (Short Film): Safe, directed by Moon Byoung-Gon