People: ‘Dheepan’ wins in upset Cannes finale
The 68th Cannes Film Festival was brought to a surprising close Sunday with Jacques Audiard’s Sri Lankan refugee drama taking the festival’s coveted top honor, the Palme d’Or.
The choice of “Dheepan,” as selected by a jury led by Joel and Ethan Coen, left some critics scratching their heads. While the dapper French filmmaker has drawn widespread acclaim for films such as “A Prophet” and “Rust and Bone,” some critics were disappointed by the thriller climax of Audiard’s film. “Dheepan” is about a trio of Sri Lankans who pretend to be a family in order to flee their war-torn country and are settled in a violent housing project outside Paris.
“This isn’t a jury of film critics,” Joel Coen told reporters after the awards ceremony, alongside fellow jurors like Guillermo del Toro and Jake Gyllenhaal. “This is a jury of artists who are looking at the work.”
“We all thought it was a very beautiful movie,” said Ethan Coen, calling the decision “swift.” “Everyone had some high level of excitement and enthusiasm for it.”
The runner-up prize, the Grand Prix, went to “Son of Saul,” a grim Holocaust drama by first-time Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the masterful 68-year-old Taiwanese filmmaker, won best director for his first feature in eight years: “The Assassin,” a lush painterly martial arts drama.
The best actress prize was split but not the way some expected. It was given to both Rooney Mara, half of the romantic pair of Todd Haynes’ ’50s lesbian drama “Carol,” and Emmanuelle Bercot, the French star of the roller coaster marriage drama “My King.” (Bercot also directed the festival opener, “Standing Tall,” about a delinquent teenager.) Any split was presumed to go to Mara and her “Carol” co-star, Cate Blanchett.
Best actor was awarded to Vincent Lindon, the veteran French actor of Stephane Brizi’s “The Measure of a Man.”
Yorgos Lanthimos, a Greek filmmaker working in English for the first time, took the jury prize for his “The Lobster,” a deadpan dystopian comedy, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, about a near-future where unmarried singles are turned into the animal of their choice.
“Chronic,” an understated drama about a home-care nurse ( Tim Roth) for the terminally ill, took best screenplay for Mexican writer-director Michel Franco.
The Camera d’Or, Cannes’ award for best first feature film, went to “La Tierra Y la Sombra.” Cesar Augusto Acevedo’s debut, which played in the Critics Week section, is about an old farmer returning home to tend to his gravely ill son.
The birthday bunch
Country singer-songwriter Tom T. Hall is 79. Actor Sir Ian McKellen is 76. Country singer Jessi Colter is 72. Actress-singer Leslie Uggams is 72. Movie director and Muppeteer Frank Oz is 71. Actress Karen Valentine is 68. Actress Connie Sellecca is 60. Actor Mike Myers is 52. Actress Anne Heche is 46. Actress Octavia Spencer is 45. Actor Justin Henry is 44. Singer Lauryn Hill is 40.