The 58th Cannes Film Festival ended this weekend with the Golden Palm Award having been given to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Child.
Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flower took the Jury's Grand Prize and Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's (
Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (
PHOTO: EPA
Not surprisingly, the Best Director Prize went to the Michael Haneke of Austria for his work on Hidden, which was highly praised by both critics and film buyers.
Tommy Lee Jones won the Best Actor Prize for his work in Three Burials by Melquiades Estrada, while the Best Actress prize went to Hanna Laslo for the film Free Zone.
Three Burials also took the Best Screenplay Prize awarded to Guillermo Arriaga.
The winning film, The Child, is about a young couple faced with unexpected roles as new parents to a new-born child and who are forced to make changes to their idle lives.
The Belgian brother filmmakers are known for making intriguing love stories, but this time the film is a simple and touching story with a message on social issues.
"We just like to look at things and people in our hometown and perhaps invent a little story happening in the place to hopefully entertain people," said Jean-Pierre Dardenne with a satisfied smile holding the Golden Palm trophy.
Jury Grand Prize winner Jim Jarmusch told the crowd he was highly honored to compete with filmmakers such as Wim Wenders, David Cronenburg and Hou, to whom he said "I am your student."
A frequent Cannes winner with works such as Stranger than Paradise and Night on Earth, Jarmusch won the prize this year with a slow-paced drama exploring the meaning of past loves, moments of decision and the missing parts of human communication.
Bill Murray plays a bachelor who one day receives a mysterious unsigned letter from an ex-girlfriend. The letter informs him that he has a son who may be looking for him.
Hesitantly, he embarks on a cross-country journey to meet four, each distinct and charming, past loves.
Jarmusch also expressed his graciousness to Cannes for helping make him known to the world. "Without Cannes, my films would not be able to show to the same amount of people," he said at the press conference after the award ceremony.
Michael Haneke, who directed the pschological drama The Piano Teacher and the pshycho-thriller Funny Game, this year made a milder film. Hidden is a suspense-filled story, beginning with a TV show host who receives a mysterious package and gradually reveals injustices carried out by a French bourgeois against an Algerian friend.
"I am tremendously happy about the successful sale of the film. You can never have too many people to see your film," Haneke said.
Taiwan's Swallow Wing Films (
The most visibly ebullient person at Saturday's award ceremony was Wang.
Upon receiving the award, he informed the audience that Saturday was also his birthday.
"Now I know why my parents gave birth to me 39 years ago on the same day," Wang said.
Before Shanghai Dreams, Wang's name was on the Chinese authorities' blacklist of Chinese directors and was never granted a screening permit for his films.
His previous film, Beijing Bicycle (
"This is the first time that I was allowed to make a film in the system. And I immediately won an award. It's indeed a great encouragement for me and my way of filmmaking. I feel more comfortable now about my filmmaking style," Wang said.
"Me and my crew will definitely go for drinks later!" he added.
Shanghai Dreams is set partly in the 1960s, when city residents were encouraged to leave the cities and settle in the poorer regions of the country to help develop the local economy. Later, in the 1980s, many of these families tried to move back to the cities to cash in on the economic reforms transforming the coastal cities.
The film's protagonist is a 19-year-old girl living in Guizhou province. That's where she grew up, made friends and where she first experienced love. But her father believes that their future lies in Shanghai.
The story of the film is also Wang's childhood experience.
"I used to hate my parents for moving the family around. But now I feel grateful that they brought us out from Guizhou to Shanghai," Wang said.
While Hou failed to win yet again with his sixth entry in Cannes, another Taiwanese director managed to secure two minor awards.
In the festival's side event, International Critic's Week, director Ho Wei-ting (
Ho also won the TV5 Young Critic Award, which is selected by young critics and students. French Television TV5 offers an advertisement space to announce the winner.
Ho and his cinematographer Jake Pollack were very excited by the awards. "Though it's not the biggest award in the program, it's a very helpful prize for us," he said.
Ho is currently planning a feature-length film that he says will be a road movie filmed in Taiwan.
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