French director Jacques Audiard’s “Dheepan” is the best film of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, a jury headed by the Coen brothers announced on Sunday.
The drama, which will be released in the U.S. by IFC/Sundance Selects, deals with a former soldier, a young woman and a child who pose as a family to escape the civil war in Sri Lanka.
Rooney Mara from “Carol” and Emmanuelle Bercot from “Mon Roi” were named winners of the best actress award. The tie came as something of a shock, with Mara’s co-star Cate Blanchett overlooked for the award in favor of Bercot from Maiwenn’s poorly-received romantic drama.
Vincent Lindon won the best actor award for Stephane Brize’s film “La Loi du Marche” (“The Measure of a Man”).
The second-place award, the Grand Prix, went to first-time director Laszlo Nemes’ harrowing Holocaust drama “Son of Saul,” while the third-place Jury Award went to Yorgos Lanthimos’ surreal “The Lobster.”
Hou Hsiao-Hsien was named the festival’s best director for his lavish martial arts epic “The Assassin.”
Writer-director Michel Franco won the screenplay award for “Chronic.”
The Camera d’Or, which goes to the best debut feature from any section of the festival, went to the International Critics’ Week selection “Land and Shade,” by Cesar Augusto Acevedo. “Son of Saul” was also eligible for the award, but ended up winning in a category not restricted to first-time directors.
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Eight of the 19 films in the main competition took home awards. Ones that did not included Matteo Garrone’s twisted fairy tale compilation, “Tale of Tales”; Justin Kurzel’s “MacBeth,” with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard; Joachim Trier’s “Louder Than Bombs,” with Jesse Eisenberg and Isabelle Huppert; Denis Villeneuve’s brutal drug-war drama “Sicario”; and Gus Van Sant’s widely mocked “The Sea of Trees,” the festival’s biggest bomb.
The jury was headed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and also included directors Guillermo del Toro and Xavier Dolan, actor Jake Gyllenhaal, actresses Sienna Miller, Sophie Marceau and Rossy de Palma and composer Rokia Traore.
The Palme d’Or for short film went to the Lebanese film “Waves 98.”
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The ceremony also included the presentation of an honorary Palme d’Or to French director Agnes Varda.
The winners:
Palme d’Or: “Dheepan,” Jacques Audiard
Grand Prix: “Son of Saul,” Laszlo Nemes
Prix du Jury: “The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos
Best Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, “The Assassin”
Best Screenplay: “Chronic,” Michel Franco
Camera d’Or (Best First Feature): “La Tierra y la Sombra” (“Land and Shade”), Cesar Augusto Acevedo
Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, “The Measure of a Man”
Best Actress: (tie) Rooney Mara, “Carol,” and Emmanuelle Bercot, “Mon Roi”
Palme d’Or, Short Film: “Waves 98,” Ely Dagher