Cannes 2022, remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES AWARDS


STILL FROM TRIANGLE OF SADNESS

Palme d’Or: TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (Ruben Östlund)
Grand Prix: (tie) CLOSE (Lukas Dhont) and STARS AT NOON (Claire Denis)
Jury Prize: (tie): THE EIGHTH MOUNTAIN (Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen) and EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Best Actress: Zar Amir Ebrahami, HOLY SPIDER (Ali Abbasi)
Best Actor: Song Kang-Ho, BROKER (Hirakazu Kore-eda)
Best Director: Park Chan-wook, DECISION TO LEAVE
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh, BOY FROM HEAVEN
Camera d’Or: WAR PONY (Gina Gammell, Riley Keough)
Un Certain Regard Prize: LES PIRES/THE WORST ONES (Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret)
Short Film Palme d’Or: BIAN SHENG QI YI ZUO XUAN YA/ THE WATER MURMURS (Jianying Chen)
Short Film Special Distinction: LORI/MELANCHOLY OF MY MOTHER'S LULLABIES (Abinash Bikram Shah)
Special Jury Mention for Short Film:
Honorary Palme d’Or: Forest Whitaker; Tom Cruise
75TH Award: TORI AND LOKITA (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Ostlund is one of eight ever to get two Palmes. Did he need another one? There was a lot of critical disagreement over the merit of his new satire. Its Metascore is 66%. Last year's Palme, TITANE, did better: 75%. Bottom line: the critics and the people who give out the big awards at Cannes (mainly actors and directors) are two different camps. But not totally different. The Jury Grid's favorite, DECISION TO LEAVE, gets serious acknowledgment in the Best Director nod for Park Chan-wook. EO, which ranked high on the Grid, co-received the Jury Prize. TORI AND LOKITA, which tied for third spot on the Grid, is acknwledged in the special 75th anniversary award for the Dardenne brothers. But ARMAGEDDON TIME, which kept its 2nd spot on the Grid, and Cronenberg and Serra, who tied for 4th place, got no mention here. Nor did much-admired mid-rankers Mungiu's R.M.N. and Mario Martoni's NOSTALGIA. There was a lot of talk about Serra's PACIFICTION toward the end and some journalists thought it might be destined for a top prize. From some critics points of view, these top prizes represent relative mediocrity. I suspect DECISION TO LEAVE stands above the awarded films. As a James Gray fan, I'm glad ARMAGEDDON TIME was here and came 2nd on the Jury Grid.

And here's Peter Bradshaw's roundup in The Guardian- what he thinks of the awards and the festival, HERE. I've read all his Cannes reviews and summarized most of them, so we should check out his conclusions - which are more or less as I suggest: some good choices, but the best was not rewarded. Bradshaw himself deserves an award. No English language film critic is more tireless and present at Cannes. He earns his top spot on The Guardian and then some.