France’s Justine Triet won a richly deserved Palme d’Or on Saturday for her courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall”, becoming only the third female director to win cinema’s most prestigious prize.
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Triet’s award capped a thrilling contest that saw a record seven female directors vie for the Palme d’Or, which only two women had previously won – Jane Campion in 1993 and Julia Ducournau in 2021. The latter was on this year’s jury, led by the 2022 Palme d’Or laureate Ruben Ostlund.
A gripping psychothriller, “Anatomy of a Fall” stars Sandra Hüller as a successful and fashionable author who stands accused of murdering her husband. The screenplay is by Arthur Harari, who caused a stir in Cannes two years ago with his epic war movie “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle”.
Accepting the award, Triet took aim at the government of French President Emmanuel Macron in a fiery message to the audience gathered inside Cannes’ Grand Théâtre Lumière – and the millions watching live on French TV.
“The country suffered from historic protests over the reform of the pension system,” she said of the protest movement that has roiled France through much of this year. “These protests were denied, repressed in a shocking way.”
Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest”, an early Palme d’Or favourite, took the second-place Grand Prix award. A chilling look at the idyllic family life of a German officer stationed at the Nazi death camp, it was based on the eponymous novel by Martin Amis, who died midway through the festival.
Aki Kaurismaki’s deadpan comedy “Fallen Leaves”, a favourite of festivalgoers, took the third-place Jury prize.
Among the other awards, French director Tran Anh Hung won the prestigious Best Director honour for “The Pot-au-Feu” (La Passion du Dodin-Bouffant), a tale of middle-age love and culinary delight set – évidemment – in France, reuniting former real-life partners Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel.
The surprise award comes exactly half a century after the ultimate arthouse food-porn movie, Marco Ferreri’s “La Grande Bouffe”, nearly caused a riot on the Croisette.
Japan’s Sakamoto Yuji took Best Screenplay for “Monster”, the latest exploration of dysfunctional families by the 2018 Palme d’Or laureate Hirokazu Kore-eda, while fellow Japanese Koji Yakusho won the Best Actor award for his turn as a Tokyo toilet cleaner in Wim Wenders’ gentle gem “Perfect Days”.
Best Actress went to Merve Dizdar for her part in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s slow-burner “About Dry Grasses”, a school drama about a teacher whose career is imperilled by a sexual abuse charge.
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