Photo Courtesy: CBC
CANNES
According to CNN, Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d'Or, the highest honour in world cinema for his seventh feature film, 'Parasite.' It's the first time the director has won the top prize.
In her first time at Cannes, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop won the Grand Prix award for her first narrative feature 'Atlantics,' a magical-realist take on migration in Senegal. This is the first time in the 72nd year history that a black woman in competition has won an award for a film.
Cannes winners: Bong Joon-ho wins Palme d'Or, 'Young Ahmed' tak...
The film 'Les Miserables' by Ladj Ly and 'Bacurau' by Brazilian duo Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles shared the Jury Prize securing the third place.
All the four prize-winning films addressed hot-button issues: migration in West Africa, contemporary working class struggles in France and South Korea and a satirical riposte to right-wing politics in Brazil.
On the other hand, the prize for best director was awarded to the Dardenne brothers for 'Young Ahmed' and the screenwriting prize was awarded to Celine Sciamma for 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire.'
Emily Beecham won the best actress award for her performance in Jennifer Hausner's 'Little Joe' while Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize for Pedro Almodovar's 'Pain and Glory,' in which he played a version of the director in Almodovar's fictionalized autobiography.
Camera d'Or, the award for best first feature film, went to Cesar Diaz for 'Our Mothers,' screening in the Critics Week strand of the festival.
Several speculations abounded as to whom the Alejandro Inarritu-led jury would bestow honours. The jury members including Yorgos Lanthimos, Alice Rohrwacher, Kelly Reichardt and Pawel Pawlikowski were considering a tedious task to come up with a name for the Palme d'Or award as they had many strong, distinctive names in their mind.
The decision to award Bong the Palme was not wholly unexpected and was a welcome choice among critics, many of whom had lobbied hard for the film as it competed against films by other Cannes heavyweights including Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino and Ken Loach.
The prizes overall followed expectations, although there were no gongs for Quentin Tarantino's roundly lauded 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' - perhaps noting how this year's jury went for more contemporary stories of issues the world is facing today, reported Deadline.
