Cannes Film Festival 2022: List Of Winners

The 75th Cannes Film Festival, after two weeks of standing ovations and walkouts, is coming to a close this evening of May 28, 2022. The festival was back to its usual glitz and glamor this year culminating in this evening’s Closing Ceremony, where the jury, presided by French actor Vincent Lindon, revealed this year’s award winners and a surprising Palme d’Or.

In the Opening Ceremony, which was held on May 17, American actor and producer Forest Whitaker had received an Honorary Palme d’Or for his career. At the press conference, Whitaker said that Cannes changed his life and the trajectory of his career. A few days later, Tom Cruise was awarded a surprise Honorary Palme d’Or by the festival. The actor was in Cannes for the world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick.

This year’s jury comprised of Noomi Rapace, Rebecca Hall, Asghar Farhadi, Joachim Trier and Vincent Lindon, who loved their status as jury so much that they demanded to continue being juries for the next four years, their president jested.

Competition

The coveted Palme D’or was awarded to Triangle of Sadness, directed by Ruben Östlund. In his acceptance speech, Östlund said that they wanted to make a thought-provoking film, hoping that after watching it the audience would talk about it. Set in the world of fashion, this satire follows a pair of models, Carl and Yaya, as they become stranded on a desert island with a group of billionaires and a cleaning lady. The film received an eight-minute long ovation at its premiere. Östlund won the Palme d’Or in 2017 for The Square. Neon bought the North American rights to the film.

The Grand Prix was awarded to two films: Lukas Dhont’s Close and Claire Denis’s Stars at Noon.

Claire Denis thanked the jury and the festival. Denis said she had spotted Margaret Qualley in Quentin Tarantino’s film and had found her extraordinary. Set in Nicaragua, this romantic thriller, Stars at Noon, based on a novel by Denis Johnson, stars Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn and Robert Pattinson. The film follows, Trish, played by Qualley, a freelance journalist. The film was acquired by A24 for North America.

Lukas Dhont’s tender coming-of-age film, Close, is the story of a close-knit friendship between two teenage boys, Léo and Rémi, played respectively by Eden Dambrine and Gustave De Waelle. The Belgian director won the Caméra D’Or in 2018 for his first feature film, Girl. Close is produced by Menuet with Diaphana Films, Topkapi Films and Versus Production, in co-production with VT
VT
M and RTBF, and is being sold worldwide by The Match Factory. In his acceptance speech, Dhont said he wanted to make a film about tenderness between men, he dedicated the film to those who have the courage to choose love. The film had a 12-minute long standing ovation at its premiere.

The award for Best Director was given to Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave. In his acceptance speech, Park Chan-wook talked of the difficulties incurred by the pandemic, saying that he hoped the audience will return to cinema theaters. He expressed his love for his two lead actors. Park Chan-wook’s new suspense thriller, starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il, follows insomniac detective Hae-joon, as he investigates the death of a man who fell from a mountain, and falls for the mysterious widow after she becomes the prime suspect. MUBI has acquired the rights to the film in North America, India, Turkey, the U.K. and Ireland, and plans to release the film in the Fall of 2022.

The jury decided to award a special prize for the 75th edition of the festival. This special award was given to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for their film Tori and Lokita. The brothers Dardenne have already won two Palmes d’Or in the past. Tori and Lokita follows two teenagers from Benin trying to survive in Belgium. The film is produced by Les Films du Fleuve and Archipel 35, and coproduced by Savage Film, and distributed by Wild Bunch.

El Otto Montagne by Belgian directors Charlotte Vandermeerscha and Felix van Groenigen and Eo by Jerzy Skolimowski won jointly the Jury Prize.

Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains), directed by Charlotte Vandermeerscha and Felix van Groenigen, starring Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Broghi, received a ten-minute-long ovation at its premiere. The film is an adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s novel, which tells the story of two friends, whose friendship is torn apart by family and life. The film explores the intimacy of friendship. The film is a European co-production, with Wildside, Rufus, Menuetto, Pyramide Productions and Vision Distribution, in collaboration with Elastic and Sky.

Jerzy Skolimowski thanked his donkeys, all six of them. It’s an Italian-Polish co-production. Inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 Au Hazard Balthazar, Eo follows the life of a donkey. The film stars Isabelle Huppert and was produced by Skopia Film.

The prize for Best Actor was awarded to Song Kang Ho for his role in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker. Song Kang Ho dedicated his award to Kore-eda and his co-stars. Broker is about South Korea’s illegal baby trade. Song Kang Ho plays a debt-ridden dry cleaner, Sand-hyun, who would rather see babies in the care of parents rather than grow up in an orphanage. Neon has the North American rights to the film.

Tarik Saleh received the award for Best Screenplay for the film Boy from Heaven. Saleh took a picture of the audience before thanking the jury. He dedicated this prize to young filmmakers, to tell their stories. Boy from Heaven is a spy thriller set in Cairo, Egypt. The film was banned in Egypt, as it was deemed an “unflattering” portrayal of their national police force.

The prize for Best Actress was awarded to Zar Amir Ebrahimi for her role in Holy Spider, directed by Ali Abbasi, a crime thriller based on a true story about a serial killer. Utopia bought the North American rights, while MUBI acquired the rights for the U.K. and Ireland, Latin America and Malaysia.

The Caméra d’Or, which celebrates the best first feature film, was awarded to War Pony, directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough. A special mention was given to Plan 75, directed by Hayakawa Chie.

The Best short film was awarded to The Water Murmurs, directed by Jianying Chen. A special mention was given to Lori, by Abinash Bikram Shah.