French director Justine Triet won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Anatomy of a Fall (L’anatomie d’une chute), becoming only the third woman to win the Palme d’Or (after Jane Campion for The Piano and Julia Ducournau for Titane).

The award  was presented by Jane Fonda, who remarked on how far Cannes has come — setting a record for female representation.  

The jury, led by last year’s winner Triangle of Sadness’s Ruben Östlund, included directors Maryam Touzani, Julia Ducournau, Rungano Nyoni, Damián Szifron, as well as actors Denis Ménochet, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, and writer Atiq Rahimi. 

Triet`s second film in Competition following the 2019 dark comedy Sibyl is a thought-provoking legal drama which purports to investigate the guilt or innocence of a popular novelist (Sandra Hüller), accused of murdering her husband. When accepting the Palme d’Or, Triet mentioned French President Macron’s controversial pension reform, and used her speech to criticise the French government`s "shocking" suppression of pension protests. 

The Grand Prix went to Polish minority coproduction The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer, starring also Sandra Hüller. The film received also the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize. The best actor award went to Kōji Yakusho, who plays a working-class Tokyo man in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days. Sakamoto Yûji won the screenplay prize for Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Monster, which also received the Queer Palm the night before, while Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki took the Jury Prize for Fallen Leaves. 

The full list of winners:

• Palme d’Or: Anatomy Of A Fall, directed by Justine Triet 
• Grand Prix: The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer
• Jury Prize: Fallen Leaves, directed by Aki Kaurismaki
• Best Director: Tran Anh Hung for The Pot-Au-Feu 
• Best Actress: Merve Dizdar, About Dry Grasses
• Best Actor: Kōji Yakusho, Perfect Days
• Best Screenplay: Monster, written by Yuji Sakamoto
• Camera d’Or: Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, directed by Thien An Pham 
• Short Film Palme d’Or: 27, directed by Flóra Anna Buda
• Queer Palm: Monster
• Special Mention for Short Film: Fár (Iceland), directed by Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlütter

Un Certain Regard Section:

• Un Certain Regard Prize: How to Have Sex (Greece, UK), directed by Molly Manning Walker 
• New Voice Prize: Omen (Belgium, Congo, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa), directed by Baloji
• Ensemble Prize: The Buriti Flower (Portugal, Brazil), directed by João Salaviza, Renée Nader Messora
• Freedom Prize: Goodbye Julia (Sudan, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, France, Egypt), directed by Mohamed Kordofani
• Directing Prize: Asmae El Moudir for Kadib Abyad for The Mother of All Lies (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
• Jury s Prize: Hounds (France), directed by Kamal Lazraq

La Cinef Section:

• First Prize: Norwegian Offspring (Denmark), directed by Marlene Emilie Lyngstad
• Second Prize: Hole (South Korea), directed by Hwang Hyein
• Third Prize: Moon (Morocco), directed by Zineb Wakrim
• The Golden Eye, Documentary Prize – The Year of the Documentary ex æquo: Four Daughters (France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Tunisia), directed by Kaouther Ben Hani and The Mother of All Lies (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), directed by Asmae El Moudir
• CST Award: Johnnie Burn, Sound Designer and Chief Sound Editor on The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer
• CST Young technician Prize: Anne-Sophie Delseries, head set designer on Marguerite`s Theorem (France, Switzerland), directed by Anna Novion

PARALLEL SECTIONS:

Directors’ Fortnight Section:

• SACD Award: A Prince (France), directed by Pierre Creton
• Label Cinema Europa Award: Creatura (Spain), directed by Elene Martin Gimeno

Critics’ Week Section:

• Grand Prize: Tiger Stripes (Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapour, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar), directed by Amanda Nell Eu
• French Touch Jury Prize: It’s Raining in the House (Belgium, France), directed by Paloma Sermon-Daï
• Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Actor Jovan Ginić in Lost Country (France, Serbia, Luxembourg, Croatia), directed by Vladimir Perišić
• Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film: Boléro (France), directed by Nans Laborde-Jourdàa

 
Critics’ Week Section - Awards given by partners:

• Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: French distributor Pyramide Films for Inshallah a Boy (Jordan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), directed by Amjad Al Rasheed
• SACD Award: Director Iris Kaltenbäck for The Rapture (France)
• Canal+ Award for Short Film: Boléro (France), directed by Nans Laborde-Jourdàa

FIPRESCI PRIZES:

• Competition: The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer
• Un Certain Regard: The Settlers (Argentina, Chile, UK, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark), directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle
• Critics’ Week: Power Alley (Brazil, France, Uruguay), directed by Lillah Halla

ECUMENICAL JURY PRIZES:

• Ecumenical Jury Prize: Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders
• Special Mention: The Old Oak (UK, France, Belgium), directed by Ken Loach
• QUEER PALM: Monster, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
• PALM DOG: Snoop from Anatomy of a Fall

Kiril Gjozev