The Cannes film festival, considered the biggest and most
prestigious one in the world, has come to an end. After almost two weeks of
film screenings, the Cannes Festival designated its winners on Sunday evening.
Of the 19 films selected for the official competition, only one received the
big prize Palme d’Or, namely Dheepan, directed by French Jacques Audiard. The
film follows the life of refugees from Sri Lanka who flee to France to escape
war.
The Best Actor Award went to French actor Vincent Lindon for his
role of humiliated unemployed person in La Loi Du Marché (The measure of a
man) directed by Stéphane Brizé. The Award for Best Actress Ex-aequo went to
American Rooney Mara for her role in the film Carol by Todd Haynes and to the
French Emmanuelle Bercot for her role of woman in love with her king in Mon
Roi by Maïwenn.
FIPRESCI, the International Federation of
Film Critics, has traditionally granted its own prizes for three films in the
official competition and in the Un Certain Regard and Quinzaine des
Réalisateurs sections. Therefore, the FIPRESCI prize went to the film Son of
Saul which features Romanian actor Levente Molnár.
The film focuses on 2 days in the life of
Saul Auslander, a Jewish prisoner from Hungary forced to work for the Nazis in
the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Levente Molnár is employed by the State
Hungarian Theater in Cluj-Napoca (in central Romania) and has a key role in
this movie. He impersonates Abraham Warsawski, Saul’s closest friend, who is
also in the concentration camp. The Romanian film directors have not made it to
the official competition this year. The new wave of Romanian filmmakers,
winners of many prizes at other important festivals, were represented in the Un
Certain Regard section.
Radu Muntean presented his movie One
floor below and Corneliu Porumboiu his film The Treasure. The latter won the
Un Certain Talent prize for its wonderful narrative. Also the short Ramona
by Andrei Creţulescu received the Canal +
prize of the Semaine de la Critique section, devoted to debutant directors.
The film Ramona will be shown by the well-known French station Canal+.