The 79th Festival de Cannes concluded its prestigious Competition with the announcement of this year’s winners, as the jury chaired by South Korean director Park Chan-wook — joined by Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé, Paul Laverty, and Stellan Skarsgård — honored the finest works across 22 films presented in Competition.
The festival’s top honor, the Palme d’or, was awarded to Cristian Mungiu’s FJORD, while the Grand Prix went to Andreï Zviaguintsev for MINOTAUR. The Best Director Prize was shared ex-æquo by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for LA BOLA NEGRA and Pawel Pawlikowski for FATHERLAND. Emmanuel Marre took home Best Screenplay for A MAN OF HIS TIME, and Valeska Grisebach’s DAS GETRÄUMTE ABENTEUER received the Jury Prize. Performance honors went to Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto in ALL OF A SUDDEN directed by Hamaguchi Ryusuke, and to Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne in COWARD directed by Lukas Dhont.
Beyond the main Competition, the Short Films Palme d’or was awarded to Federico Luis for PARA LOS CONTRINCANTES. The Un Certain Regard section recognized Sandra Wollner’s EVERYTIME with its top prize, while the Jury Prize went to Abinash Bikram Shah’s ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG. Louis Clichy’s IRON BOY earned the Special Jury Prize, Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset was named Best Actor for CONGO BOY, and the Best Actresses honor was shared by Marina De Tavira, Daniela Marín Navarro, and Mariangel Villegas in SIEMPRE SOY TU ANIMAL MATERNO.
The Caméra d’or, recognizing the best first feature or short, was presented to Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo for BEN’IMANA. La Cinef student film prizes were awarded to Lucas Acher of NYU for LASER-GATO, Nadine Misong Jin of Columbia University for SILENT VOICES, and joint third prizes to Julius Lagoutte Larsen of La Fémis and Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi of Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. The Superior Technical Commission honored Nicolas Rumpl as Best Artist-Technician for his work on Notre Salut, and Esther Mysius as Best Young Female Film Technician for The Birthday Party.
The 79th Festival de Cannes once again affirmed cinema’s power to move, provoke, and connect — celebrating a diverse slate of voices and visions that continue to define the very best of filmmaking on the world stage.
