Ruben Ostlund’s raucous film wins top prize, with Grand Prix shared by Lukas Dhont’s “Close” and Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon”
The film, an uproarious three-part comedy about fashion models, social-media influencers, class divides and projectile vomiting, is the second Palme win in five years for Swedish director Ostlund, who won for “The Square” in 2017. It is also the third consecutive win for U.S. distributor Neon, which took the top prize for “Titane” last year and “Parasite” in 2019. (There was no festival in 2020.)
The runner-up prize, the Grand Prix, was a tie between young Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s “Close” and veteran French filmmaker Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon.”
Park Chan-Wook was named the festival’s best director for “Decision to Leave,” his elegant cross between a murder mystery and a romance.
The best actress prize was awarded to Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who plays a reporter investigating the murder of more than a dozen women in Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider.” Korean actor Song Kang-Ho won the best actor award for his role in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker.”
Writer-director Tarik Saleh won the screenplay award for “Boy From Heaven,” a story of corruption in both religious and political circles in Egypt. Accepting the award, Saleh said the film has made it impossible for him to return to Egypt, but that he “had to do it.”
The Jury Prize, which is essentially the third-place award, was a tie between two films whose directors used Italian performers even though they weren’t from that country: Belgian directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch for “The Eight Mountains,” which was set and shot in Italy using Italian actors; and 83-year-old Polish director, Jerzy Skolimowski, the oldest filmmaker in the competition, for “EO,” whose main performers were a pair of Italian donkeys.
A special 75th anniversary award was given to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian brothers who have already won two Palme d’Or awards, for “Tori and Lokita.”
The Camera d’Or, the award for the best first film from all sections of the festival, went to Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s “War Pony.”
The Main Competition consisted of 21 different films, also including James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction,” Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” and Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Tchaikovsky’s Wife.”
The jury was headed by French actor Vincent Lindon and also included Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, actress-directors Rebecca Hall and Jasmine Trinca, directors Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols and Joachim Trier and actresses Noomi Rapace and Deepika Padukone.
The winners included all three of the Belgian films in competition, “Close,” “The Eight Mountains” and “Tori and Lokita.” Asian directors also did well, with films by Park Chan-Wook and Hirokazu Kore-eda winning awards in the Main Competition and Hayakawa Chie and Jianying Chen taking honors in the Camera d’Or and short-film competitions, respectively.
All of the Main Competition films by North American directors — “Armageddon Time,” “Crimes of the Future” and “Showing Up” — went home empty-handed, though Swedish director Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner is in English.
At the awards ceremony, Riley Keough was the only American director to win an award. (Her co-director, Gina Gammell, is Australian.)
The list of winners:
Palme d’Or: “Triangle of Sadness,” Ruben Ostlund
Grand Prix: (TIE) “Close,” Lukas Dhont; and “Stars at Noon,” Claire Denis
Jury Prize: (TIE) “The Eight Mountains,” Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch; and “Eo,” Jerzy Skolimowski
Best Director: Park Chan-Wook, “Decision to Leave”
Best Screenplay: “Boy From Heaven,” Tarik Saleh
Best Actor: Song Kang Ho, “Broker”
Best Actress: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, “Holy Spider”
75th anniversary special award: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, “Tori and Lokita”
Camera d’Or (best first film): “War Pony,” Riley Keough and Gina Gammell
Camera d’Or, special mention: “Plan 75,” Hayakawa Chie
Palme d’Or, Short Film: “The Water Murmurs,” Jianying Chen
Short film special mention: “Lori,” Abinash Bikram Shah
