Here Are Your Major Cannes Film Festival Award Winners
Even by its normally prestigious standards, this was a pretty exciting year for the Cannes Film Festival. Surprise selections, an atypically fun jury, and countless debates about Netflix and the future of film exhibition all combined to make headlines all around the world. Oh, and there were also a handful of the most highly anticipated films of 2017 receiving serious recognition from the festival. You know, no big deal.
For those unfamiliar with the Cannes award structure, here’s a quick primer. The biggest award at the Cannes Film Festival is, of course, the Palme D’or, which was given by a jury that included Will Smith, Jessica Chastain, and South Korean director Park Chan-wook. The second biggest award is the Grand Prix, followed by the Jury Prize as the de facto third place recognition. While Cannes also has a handful of more familiar awards — including Best Actor, Actress, and Screenplay — this year they also awarded a special 70th Anniversary Prize to Nicole Kidman, who had several films in competition this year.
Here are the biggest winners from this year’s Cannes Film Festival:
PALME D’OR (GOLDEN PALM)
The Square, dir: Ruben Östlund
GRAND PRIX
120 Beats Per Minute, dir: Robin Campillo
BEST DIRECTOR
BEST ACTRESS
Diane Kruger, In the Fade
BEST ACTOR
Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD
Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, The Killing of a Sacred Dear
Lynne Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here
JURY PRIZE
Loveless, dir: Andrei Zvyagintsev
70TH ANNIVERSARY PRIZE
Nicole Kidman
While not all of these films will find their way into the American award season — several outlets have already called this crop of films “too edgy” for serious consideration by the MPAA — it does highlight a few of the films we’ll be seeing in the months to come. The Beguiled will certainly be a player for the Oscars, and based on the strength of its reviews and its performance in the festival, You Were Never Really Here should also get some love from domestic juries. I, for one, can’t wait.