Julia Docorno wins for her contemporary movie "Titan"

Cannes Festival crowns women and youth with its Palme d'Or

The Cannes Film Festival was crowned Julia Ducornu for her contemporary film "Titan", which made the French filmmaker the second female director to win the Palme d'Or in the history of the festival, which concluded its 74th session last night, after his absence last year due to the "Covid-19" pandemic.

The jury, whose selection of Spike Lee to head it was a historic step in itself, as the first black American to take on this task, awarded Docorno, 37, the youngest director to participate in the competition.

The French director received the Palme d'Or 28 years after it was awarded to Jeanne Campion for her film "The Piano".

Julia Docorno thanked the jury for "recognizing the urgent and profound need for a more flexible and inclusive world," and for "inviting greater diversity in our cinematic experiences and in our lives," and added, "Thanks also to the jury for allowing monsters to enter."

She stressed, "I realize that shortage is a crisis, and that the brutality that frightens some and focuses on my work is a weapon and a force to move the walls of normativeness that lock us up and separate us."

The movie's worst shock

Giving Docorno this award constitutes a very important message for the film industry, which has witnessed more than ever a four-year reconsideration of the status of women and gender equality, following the case of former film producer Harvey Weinstein and then the “MeToo” movement.

Only four of the 24 films that were competing for the Palme d'Or were directed by women.

The awards ceremony was marked by a mistake made by Spike Lee, who immediately announced the identity of the Palme d'Or winner, while he was supposed to reveal the name of the best actor award winner.

He soon apologized to the film crew, saying: "I'm like someone who missed the target... I'm sorry, so let them forget Spike Lee."

On the artistic level, the festival chose again, by crowning “Titan”, which is characterized by a contemporary style that includes the greatest amount of violence, melancholy and feminist tendencies, to award the prize to one of the works known as “genre films”, after its coronation in 2019 the South Korean movie “Parasite” Bong Joon.

The film shocked the audience at the festival this year, as it was the fiercest among the works participating in the competition, and it was not well received by many critics.

The director made a strong impact at Cannes with her first feature film "Ru," a shocking story about a veterinary student who is impossible to cannibal.

This work made Ducornu the most prominent name in this category of dark films in France.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the director was supported by Nate Shyamalan, one of the most prominent names in the field of horror films, and he commissioned her to direct two episodes of his series "Servant".

Youth in the fore

In another sign of opening up to the younger generation, the jury awarded two awards for best acting performance to an actor and actress in their thirties.

On the women's side, Norwegian Renate Rinsvi, 33, won the award for her role in the film "The Worst Person in the World" by Joachim Trier, where she plays the role of a young woman searching for herself.

The film explores the various issues that concern the heroine of the work, Julie, from desire to fidelity, through motherhood, the relationship with parents, and differences between generations.. All these treatments are based on the light of major contemporary themes: the place of women in society, the environment, and the digital invasion.

As for the male actors, the jury awarded the Best Actor award to Caleb Landry Jones, 31, for his performance in the movie "Nitram", in which he plays the role of a young man with borderline personality disorder preparing to commit one of the most horrific mass murders in Australian history.

This year, the festival devoted a large space to young filmmakers at the expense of other veteran names, some of whom have been working behind the camera since the seventies of the last century, such as Paul Verhoeven, whose film "Benedetta" about a medieval nun disappointed the followers, or Nani Moretti, who aspired to He won the Palme d'Or for the second time with his movie "Tree Pani", but he left the competition empty-handed.

Two directors equally shared the grand prize from the jury, namely the Finnish Juho Koosmanen, and the Iranian Asghar Farhadi, who called, in a speech on the stage of the closing ceremony of the festival, to “promote awareness” in his country.

• Julia Docorno: “Thank you to the jury for letting the monsters in.”

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Rewards List

The most prominent rewards distributed at the 74th Cannes Film Festival:

■ Palme d'Or: "Titan" by Julia Ducornu (France).

■ Grand Prize: “A Hero” by Asghar Farhadi (Iran), and “Hitti No. 6” by Juho Koosmanen (Finland).

■ Jury Prize: “Hebrech” (The Knee) by Nadav Lapid (Israel), and “Memoria” by Apichatong Werasitakul (Thailand).

■ Best Director Award: Director Leos Carax for "Annette" (France).

■ Best Actor Award: American Caleb Landry Jones in "Netram".

■ Best Actress Award: Norwegian Rinat Rinsvi in ​​"The Worst Person in the World".

■ Best Screenplay: Director Ryosuke Hamaguchi for his movie “Drive My Car” (Japan).

■ The Golden Camera: “Morena,” directed by Antonita Alamat Kosianovic (Croatia).

■ Palme d'Or for Best Short Film: “Tian Chia Wu Ya” directed by Tang Yi (Hong Kong).

■ Special mention for the best short film: “August Sky” directed by Jasmine Tenucci (Brazil).

The last 10 golden palms

News agencies have published a list of films that won the Palme d'Or during the last 10 editions of the Cannes Film Festival:

2021: “Titan” by Julia Ducornu (France).

-2019: “Parasite” by Bong Joon-ho (South Korea).

-2018: Shoplifters (The Thieves) by Hirokazu Kuri-eda (Japan).

-2017: “The Square” by Robin Ostlund (Sweden).

2016: “I, Daniel Blake” (I, Daniel Blake) by Ken Loach (UK).

2015: “Depan” by Jacques Audiard (France).

2014: Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey).

2013: “No in Dadel” (Adele’s life) by Abdellatif Kechiche (France).

2012: “Amour” (Love) by Michael Haneke (Austria).

2011: “Tree of Life” by Terence Malek (USA).

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