“White God” (“Feher Isten”) won the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, a jury headed by director Pablo Trapero announced on Friday.
Focusing on a dog who organizes the strays and mutts of Budapest to rebel and turn on their masters, Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo’s film won raves for the way it uses what could be a horror-movie scenario to create a potent metaphor for class oppression.
Australian actor David Gulpilil, who made his debut in “Walkabout” about 40 years ago, was named the section’s best actor for “Charlie’s Country.”
Ruben Ostlund won the Jury Prize for “Turist,” Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado won the Special Jury Prize for “The Salt of the Earth,” and “Party Girl” won the ensemble prize.
Un Certain Regard is typically devoted to films that are more adventurous than the films in Cannes’ main competition, with an emphasis on young and first-time filmmakers. This year’s selection was made up of 20 films, including Mathieu Amalric‘s “The Blue Room,” Jessica Hausner’s “Amour Fou,” Ned Benson’s “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” Lisandro Alonso’s “Jauja,” Pascale Ferran’s “Bird People,” Asia Argento’s “Incompresa” and Ryan Gosling‘s controversial debut feature, “Lost River.”
In addition to Argentinian director Trapero, the jury also included actress Maria Bonnevie, writer-director Moussa Toure, journalist Sophie Grassin and Criterion Collection president Peter Becker.
Last year’s Un Certain Regard winner, Rithy Panh’s “The Missing Picture,” went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Palme d’Or and other major Cannes awards will be announced by the main competition jury at an awards ceremony on Saturday.