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Director Julia Ducournau (2nd from left) with her actors Vincent Lindon and Agathe Rousselle on her right.
On the right, Jury President Spike Lee and actress Sharon Stone, who presented the Palme d'Or
Photo: SEBASTIEN NOGIER / EPA
The 74th Cannes Film Festival came to an end with a gala that very few would have suspected before.
The Golden Palm went to the horror film "Titane" by the French Julia Ducournau.
For the first time in the history of the film festival, a director has won the main prize alone - in 1993 New Zealander Jane Campion had to share the award with Chen Kaige.
Actually the traditional highlight of the award gala, the announcement of the Golden Palm was turned on its head by jury president Spike Lee: At the request of presenter Doria Tillier to announce the first prize of the evening, Lee immediately announced the main prize.
He seemed to have confused first place with first prize.
There was brief confusion at the Grand Thêatre Lumière in Cannes as to whether it was a joke. But then Tillier, Lee and the rest of the jury tried to award the prizes as if nothing had been revealed - and made it so clear that Ducournau would really be the big winner of the evening. The 37-year-old finally accepted the award with tears when she was officially declared the winner of the Palme d'Or.
»Titane«, the Frenchwoman's second feature film, revolves around a woman who received a titanium implant in her head as a child. As it turns out in the course of her wild and violent life, she seems to have become a hybrid being who breaks the boundaries of being human and can no longer be determined by one gender. Set up as a horror film with many explicit scenes of violence, "Titane" is certainly the most daring golden palm of the last few decades. Ducournau thanked the jury for awarding a cinema that was more inclusive and fluid.
The other prizes also showed that the jury wanted to award the widest possible range of cinematic work. Prizes were split twice: The jury prize, in a sense third place, went to both Israeli Nadav Lapid ("Ahned's Knee") and Thai Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Memoria"). Ex-aequo, the Iranian Asghar Farhadi ("A Hero") and the Finn Juho Kuosmanen ("Compartment No. 6") had to share the jury's grand prize, second place.
For the best screenplay, the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi was honored with his adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami - after the Silver Bear at the Berlinale 2021, the Japanese director and author's second big prize this year. The prize for the best director stayed in France: Leos Carax won for his opening film »Annette«, which he had shot on the basis of a concept album by the pop band Sparks. The musicians accepted the award on behalf of Carax, who was not present.
The award for the best male actor went to US actor Caleb Landry Jones for his role as a young man with borderline syndrome in the Australian film »Nitram«. The Norwegian Renate Reinsve was honored as best female actress for her role in the melancholy comedy "The Worst Person in the World" by the Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster from the USA was honored with the Golden Palm of Honor at the beginning of the festival. The second palm of honor went to the Italian director Marco Bellochio.
This year there were 24 films in competition on the Côte d'Azur, four of which were directed by women.
In addition to Spike Lee, the actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal, the directors Jessica Hausner and the actors Tahar Ramin and Song Kang-Ho decided on the palm trees.
Song is the leading actor in »Parasite«, which received the Palme d'Or in 2019 and was later also awarded the Oscar for best film of the year.
Whether "Titane" will be granted a similar triumph is questionable due to its shocking scenes of violence.
The curiosity about Ducournau and her extraordinary film, which had already thrilled international critics at its premiere, is likely to have grown again thanks to the Palme d'Or.