On Saturday, July 17, the closing ceremony of the 74th Cannes International Film Festival took place in France.

The show ended with the screening of Nicolas Bedos's film Agent 117: From Africa with Love.

The winners of the main competition this year were chosen by a jury headed by American director Spike Lee.

Together with him, the panel of judges included directors Mati Diop, Kleber Mendonsa Filho and Jessica Hausner, actors Melanie Laurent, Song Kan-ho, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tahar Raheem, as well as singer Mylene Farmer.

The ceremony began with an incident: Spike Lee named the Palme d'Or laureate before the announcement of the winners of the remaining awards, while traditionally the picture that wins the main prize of the show is called the last one.

The coveted statuette was received by the French director Giulia Ducorno, who presented the dramatic thriller "Titan" at the festival.

As noted by Variety, this is the second time in history that the Palme d'Or goes to a woman.

Together with Ducorno's work, 23 more films from Russia, the USA, Thailand, Belgium, Israel and other countries competed for the award.

The plot of the picture revolves around a girl forced to live with a titanium plate in her skull.

The tape tells about the everyday difficulties faced by the heroine, as well as about her personal life - the girl is not interested in traditional relationships.

Instead, she has sex with a car and even manages to get pregnant from it.

Interestingly, the opinion of the panel of judges differed from the choice of film critics.

According to the results of the vote of the journalists published by the Screendaily magazine, the first place was taken by the Japanese-made film "Get behind the wheel of my car" directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

"Titan" was not included in the top five.

  • Sharon Stone and Julia Ducorno at the closing ceremony of the 74th Cannes International Film Festival

  • Reuters

  • © Johanna Geron

Hamaguchi's painting, in turn, won the Best Screenplay award.

It was written by the director himself in collaboration with Takamasa Oe.

The plot is based on the story of Haruki Murakami.

The Grand Prix of the festival was awarded to the film of the two-time Oscar winner Asgar Farhadi “Hero”.

The hero of a dramatic thriller goes to jail due to debts.

Sometimes he is allowed to go out to see his son.

During one such meeting, a man finds a bag of gold coins.

He decides to go looking for the owner of the property.

Another statuette was awarded to Juho Kuosmanen from Finland for the film Coupe Six, dedicated to the theme of loneliness.

A chance acquaintance on the train helps a student from Finland and a miner from Russia to sort out their own feelings.

Among the actors involved in the film are Yura Borisov and Yulia Aug. 

The jury prize was also awarded to two films at once - "Memory" by Apitchatpon Virasetakul and "Ahed's Knee" by Nadav Lapid, and Leo Carax was recognized as the best director of the show, whose film "Annette" with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard opened the Cannes Film Festival.

In the center of the plot is a couple who gives birth to a girl with unusual abilities.

The appearance of a child completely turns the lives of heroes.

Caleb Landry Jones, who starred in Justin Kurzel's Australian thriller Nitram and Renate Reinswe, won the acting nominations.

She starred in the dramedy "The Worst Man in the World" by the Dane Joachim Trier.

Also at the ceremony, the honorary prize was awarded to the Italian director and screenwriter Marco Bellocchio, whose work has been presented at the Cannes Film Festival several times.

Earlier, at the 74th show, the same award was given to the American actress Jodie Foster.

Russia in the main competition of the festival this year was represented by Kirill Serebrennikov with the fantastic drama "The Petrovs in the Flu" based on the novel by Alexei Salnikov.

The film was warmly received by foreign critics and received the independent Vulcan Prize, awarded to participants in the Cannes Film Festival for technical achievements.

The prize was awarded to the tape operator Vladislav Opelyants. 

On the eve of the ceremony, the winners of the Special View competition program were announced.

The main prize was awarded to the Russian director Kira Kovalenko, who presented the drama film "Unclenching her fists" about a resident of a mining town in North Ossetia, who hopes to defend her independence.

Soon after the ceremony, it became known that the tape will be released in North America, Great Britain and several other countries.

The jury prize was awarded to the film "Great Freedom" by the Austrian director Sebastian Maise.

The plot of the film focuses on the relationship between a convicted gay man and his cellmate, unfolding over several decades.

Also this year, Alexey German, Jr., with the film "Delo", fought for prizes in the "Special Look" program.

His drama about the struggle of a university teacher for justice and his own ideals was left without awards.