After 21 world premieres, almost two weeks of red carpet shows and hundreds of thousands of camera flashes, the 76th Cannes Film Festival concludes on Saturday, with the presentation of its top prize, the Palme d’Or.
One of the most coveted film awards will be decided by the jury this year, by the two-day Palme d’Or winner president Ruben Östlund, a Swedish director. A short ceremony will precede the festival’s closing film of the night, the Pixar animation “Elemental.”
Any of the 21 films that are presented in the main competition at Cannes can win the Palme d’Or, among this year’s favorites are Jonathan Glazer’s “Zones of Interest,” a chilling adaptation of Martin Amis about a German family that lives near Auschwitz; Falling Leaves, a romance from the Danish film Mortuary by Aki Kaurismäki; and Justin Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” a twisted market drama from the French Alps.
Two of them, “Casual Anatomy” and “Zone of Interest”, star the German actress Sandra Hüller, the best possible actress nominated.
The festival’s Un-dam Respected section handed out its awards on Friday, giving the first prize to Molly Manning Walker’s feature debut, “How to Have Sex.”
Saturday’s ceremony closes an edition of Cannes that was not lacking in entertainment, stars or controversy.
The most important premieres came from the competition. Martin Scorsese’s Osage murder epic “The Killing of the Moonflower,” an expansive vision of American abuse starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. “Indiana Jones and Destiny” Farewell to Harrison Ford, with a tribute to Ford. And Wes Anderson released “Asteroid City.”
The opening ceremony was known as a controversy. “Joannes du Barry,” a period drama co-starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, is set to be the opening night film. The awards marked Depp’s highest-profile appearance since the conclusion of last year’s explosive trial with ex-wife Amber Heard.
In the selection of “Joannes du Barry” the critics of Cannes were added because they were accused of being too hospitable to people of insulting behavior.
Cannes, which requires films to meet France’s strict theatrical release rules, has remained at a dead end with Netflix in recent years. Interestingly, though, the relaxation of the Netflix Palme d’Or after Todd Haynes’ “December of May” stars Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, in the competition premise, Netflix picked it up for North American distribution, for 11 million dollars.
