“Blue is the Warmest Color,” Abdellatif Kechiche‘s three-hour coming-of-age drama about a teenage girl in a lesbian relationship, was named the best film in the main competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival by the Fipresci International Federation of Film Critics.
The film, titled “La Vie D’Adele – Chapitre 1 & 2” in French, received widespread attention for its lengthy, graphic sex scenes, but it also took many critics by surprise and became one of the best-reviewed films of the festival.
The winner was chosen by a jury of nine international film critics headed by Klaus Eder from Bayerischer Rundfunk in Germany. The main Cannes jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, will award the Palme d’Or on Sunday.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” won the Fipresci award as the best film in the Un Certain Regard section, while Jeremy Saulnier’s “Blue Ruin” was chosen tops in the Directors’ Fortnight section.
Last year’s winners were Sergi Loznitza’s “In the Fog” in the main competition, Benh Zeitlin‘s Oscar-nominated “Beasts of the Southern Wild” from Un Certain Regard and Rachad Djaidani’s “Hold Back” from Directors’ Fortnight.
In another award announced on Saturday, Asghar Farhadi‘s “The Past” won the top prize from the Cannes Ecumenical Jury. Farhadi’s last film, the Oscar-winning “A Separation,” had won that same prize at Cannes two years ago.
The Ecumenical Jury gave special commendations to actress-turned-director Valeria Golino’s “Miele” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Like Father, Like Son.”
