(Portugal - Grand Tour; India - All We Image as Light)
Awards for the in competition films of the 77th Cannes Film Festival were announced live in Cannes at the Grand Palais theater today where Sean Baker's Anora won the Palme d’Or, the top prize of the festival. Baker is the first American filmmaker to take the win since Terrence Malik won in 2011 for The Tree of Life. Here are all the winners:
Palme d’Or: Anora by Sean Baker
Grand Prize: All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia
Jury Prize: Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard
Director: Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes
Actor: Jesse Plemons for Kinds of Kindness
Actress: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for Emilia Perez
Screenplay: The Substance by Coralie Fargeat
Special Prize: The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof
(Denmark - The Girl with the Needle)
Last year, 6 of the top 15 shortlisted films debuted at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and the year before it was 9. Let's take a look at the 10 films we think could be contenders this year:
Motel Destino (Brazil) - Metacritic: 73
Universal Language (Canada) - Metacritic: 80
Caught by the Tides (China) - Metacritic: 80
The Girl with the Needle (Denmark) - Metacritic: 82
When the Light Breaks (Iceland) - Metacritic: 79
All We Imagine as Light (India) - Metacritic: 93
Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco) - Metacritic: 68
Armand (Norway) - Metacritic: 69
Grand Tour (Portugal) - Metracritic: 74
The Other Way Around (Spain) - Metacritic: 77
Other films that could be submitted by their countries are the following:
Simon of the Mountain (Argentina)
Julie Keeps Quiet (Belgium)
The Shameless (Bulgaria)
Meeting with Pol Pot (Cambodia)
The Hyperboreans (Chile)
Mi Bestia (Colombia)
The Brink of Dreams (Egypt)
Kyuka: Before Summer's End (Greece)
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Hong Kong)
The Damned (Italy)
My Sunshine (Japan)
Flow (Latvia)
Into the Wonderwoods (Luxembourg)
To a Land Unknown (Palestine)
Three Kilometres to the End of the World (Romania)
Norah (Saudi Arabia)
An Unfinished Film (Singapore)
The Village Next to Paradise (Somalia)
I, The Executioner (South Korea)
Savages (Switzerland)
Ghost Trail (Syria)
Locust (Taiwan)
Santosh (United Kingdom)
Viet and Nam (Vietnam)
(Palestine - No Other Land; Germany - Dying; Sweden - Crossing)
Usually, once the Cannes Film Festival has concluded, there tends to be a frontrunner that's been established. Last year, we thought that The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall would battle it out for the Oscar. This year though, there doesn't seem to be a film that is leading the race. All We Imagine as Light seems to be the film to beat right now, but the big question is whether or not India will even submit it. No Other Land from Palestine seems to be another frontrunner since its debut at the Berlinale Film Festival. Maybe it'll be Crossing for Sweden? The Girl with the Needle for Denmark? Perhaps Dying for Germany? All Shall Be Well for Hong Kong? The Seed of the Sacred Fig would be a contender as well, but there's a 0.01% chance that Iran will submit it.
We haven't even mentioned any of the French films yet. None of them seemed to have made a big splash at this year's festival. Their submission could be Filmlovers! which seems to have the best reviews so far, or perhaps The Story of Souleymane? Maybe The Balconettes or Wild Diamond?
Italy doesn't seem to have a film yet, but with Venice still coming up that will change. It feels like the submission for Spain still hasn't been decided yet too. Same with Finland. Same with Poland. Perhaps with Japan as well, even though My Sunshine is getting excellent reviews.
Everything feels so up in the air right now with so many question marks regarding which films will be submitted, let alone be contenders for this year. All we know is that it's going to be an exciting year.