Festival de Cannes 2023, the Palme d'Or to Anatomy of a Fall

The winners of Festival de Cannes 2023 © Maxence Parey / FDC

Chaired by director Ruben Östlund, the Jury of the 76th Cannes Film Festival unveiled the winners of the various awards at the Palmarès Ceremony and awarded the Palme d’Or to Anatomy of a Fall, directed by French filmmaker Justine Triet.

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Festival de Cannes 2023 : chaired by director Ruben Östlund, the Jury announced the winners during the Closing Ceremony. Ruben Östlund was assisted in his delicate task of awarding the prizes for the 21 films in Competition by director Maryam Touzani, actor Denis Ménochet, writer and director Rungano Nyoni, actress and director Brie Larson, actor and director Paul Dano, writer Atiq Rahimi, director Damián Szifron and director Julia Ducournau. As always, the winners list beat the predictions often made at the end of the Festival : the Palme d’Or went to Justine Triet‘s Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une Chute).

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A glamorous Red Carpet

After a glamorous Red Carpet, with a host of international stars and muses showing off their haute couture gowns and sumptuous jewels, the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival 2023 welcomed the winners to the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, with Chiara Mastroianni as Master of Ceremonies. Broadcast live on France 2, the Palme d’Or was awarded to talented director Justine Triet. At 44, she is the third female director to win the Palme in the Festival’s history, succeeding Jane Campion for The Piano Lesson in 1993 and Julia Ducournau for Titane in 2021.

Benoît Magimel & Trân Anh Hùng (The Pot-au-feu) ©YesICannes.com

The commodification of culture

After the tremendous and inspiring Jane Fonda had presented her with the Palme d’Or, the French female director took advantage of the platform offered to the world’s media to stigmatise the government for its unjust and unjustified reform of pensions imposed on the French people by the current power, and the repression by an “increasingly unabashedly domineering power” of demonstrations triggered by this social crisis. “The country was gripped by an extremely powerful and unanimous historic protest against pension reform”, she declared, before deploring the shocking denial of the movement. Justine Triet denounced the repression of the protests. She also pointed the finger at the “commodification of culture that the neo-liberal government is defending”, which is in the process of “destroying the cultural exception” without which she would not be here today.

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The irony of the situation

The irony of the situation is that the authorities had deployed considerable police resources to prevent protests against the reform from taking place at the Cannes Film Festival, with orders banning demonstrations in the vicinity of the Palais des Festival, the demonstration being pushed back at Le Cannet, and so on. Unfortunately, the protest came from within, from the stage of the Grand Auditorium Lumière, through the voice of the Palme d’Or winner, with an international impact that demonstrations would not have had… Widely hailed by the left, this attack on the government sparked a battle of wits on social networks, with many calling into question the financial support for French cinema.

Elemental ©Disney-Pixar

Elemental at the Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the 76th Cannes Film Festival was followed by the screening (Out of Competition) of the animated film Elemental by Korean-born New Yorker Peter Sohn. This Disney-Pixar animated film echoes a universal theme: the harmony of peoples and cultures. In Element City, fire, water, air and earth live together in harmony. Flam is linked to Flack, incandescent and aquatic characters.

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The Cannes Festival 2023 prize list

Feature films

Palme d’or
ANATOMY OF A FALL by Justine TRIET
Grand Prix
THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Jonathan GLAZER
Director’s Award
TRÂN ANH Hùng for LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT (The Pot-au-feu)
Jury Prize
FALLEN LEAVES by Aki KAURISMÄKI
Screenplay Award
SAKAMOTO Yuji for MONSTER by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
Best Actress
Merve DIZDAR in THE DRY HERBS by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
Best Performance by an Actor
Kōji YAKUSHO in PERFECT DAYS by Wim WENDERS

Quentin Tarentino ©YesICannes.com

Short Films

Palme d’or
27 by Flóra Anna BUDA
Special Mention
FÁR by Gunnur MARTINSDÓTTIR SCHLÜTER

Eva Longoria ©YesICannes.com

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard Prize
HOW TO HAVE SEX by Molly Manning Walker – 1st film
Jury Prize
LES MEUTES by Kamal Lazraq – 1st film
Director’s Award
Asmae El Moudir for KADIB ABYAD (THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES)
New Voice Award
AUGURE by Baloji – 1st film
Ensemble Award
CROWRÃ (LA FLEUR DE BURITI) by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
Freedom Award
GOODBYE JULIA by Mohamed Kordofani

Wim Wenders & Kōji Yakusho ©YesICannes.com

La Cinef

First Prize
NORWEGIAN OFFSPRING – by Marlene Emilie Lyngstad Den Danske Filmskole, Denmark
Second Prize
HOLE – by Hwang Hyein, Korean Academy of Film Arts, South Korea
Third Prize
AYYUR (Moon) – by Zineb Wakrim ÉSAV, Marrakech, Morocco