South Korean director Park Chan-wook heads up the competition jury for the 79th Cannes Film Festival. Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio The closing ceremony of the 79th Cannes Film Festival has begun in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, where the jury will announced the winners of this year’s event, including the Palme d’Or.
You can watch the ceremony live on TikTok Brut or, inside France, on public channel France 2.
This year’s jury is headed by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, and includes screenwriter Paul Laverty, directors Laura Wandel, Diego Céspedes and Chloé Zhao, and actors Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Isaach de Bankolé and Stellan Skarsgård.
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French actress Eye Haïdara will host the closing ceremony and award presenters include actors Geena Davis, Pierfrancesco Favino, Gael García Bernal, and Zoe Saldaña, and directors Xavier Dolan and Nadine Labaki. Scottish Oscar winner Tilda Swinton will present the Palme d’Or, the top prize for best film.
The festival began with a lifetime achievement award, an honorary Palme d’Or, for EGOT legend Barbra Streisand. Streisand, who is suffering from a knee injury, could not attend, but at her request, legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert paid tribute to her life and career. Huppert highlighted not only Streisand’s incredible achievements in film, music and on the stage, but her support for the LGBTQ+ community, and religious and ethnic minorities. Huppert’s speech was followed by a highlight reel of Streisand’s five plus decades in film, from Funny Girl (1968) and A Star is Born (1976) to Yentl (1983)and Meet the Fockers (2004).
Cannes has often proved a strong predictor for awards season. Several of last year’s winners, including Jafar Panahi’ It Was Just an Accident Joachim Trier’ Sentimental Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, and Oliver Laxe’s Sirat all received Oscar nominations, with Sentimental Value winning the Academy Award for best international feature.
There are no obvious frontrunners for the Palme this year. Pundits have pointed to Minotaur, the long-awaited return of Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, as a likely candidate for the top prize. But there are many other strong contenders, including Calvo and Ambrossi’s Spanish musical drama La Bola Negra (The Black Ball), a queer epic with Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close that drew raves, and a 20-minute standing ovation, at its Cannes premiere this week; Coward, the WWI drama from Belgian director Lukas Dhont (Close); or Emmanuel Marre’s A Man of His Time, a French wartime drama, starring Anatomy of a Fall actor Swann Arlaud as a writer in Vichy France.
Industry watchers are also keen to see if Neon can extend its streak of picking Palme d’Or winners. Tom Quinn’s indie outfit has successfully selected the last six Cannes champions, including last year with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident. Going into this year’s ceremony, Neon has six hopefuls, all picked up ahead of the festival: Na Hong-jin’s South Korean monster movie Hope; James Gray’s star-studded Paper Tiger with Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver; Koreeda Hirokazu’s AI-inspired drama Sheep In The Box; Arthur Harari’s psychological fantasy The Unknown starring Léa Seydoux; All of a Sudden, a nursing-home drama from Drive My Car director Hamaguchi Ryusuke; and Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan.
A full list of winners follows, updating live.
Palme d’Or
Grand Prix
Jury Prize
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Actress
Best Actor
Special Prize
Camera d’Or for Best First Film
Palme d’Or for Best Short Film
Para Los Contincantes (To Opponents), dir. Federico Luis
Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Film
Everytime, Sandra Wollner
Un Certain Regard Jury Prize
Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah (first film)
Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize
Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
Un Certain Regard Best Actor
Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, Congo Boy, dir. Rafiki Fariala
Un Certain Regard Best Actress
Marina de Tavira, Daniela Marín Navarro, Mariangel Villegas, Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno, dir. Valentina Maurel
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