2012 Cannes Winners Are In
Michael Haneke walked away with the Palme d’Or, while other winners proved slightly more surprising...
The Cannes Film Festival has wrapped for another year with director Michael Haneke taking home the Palme d'Or for Amour, the story about an elderly husband and wife facing their mortality. The Austrian director previously took home the coveted top prize in 2009 for The White Ribbon.
In somewhat of a surprise, the Grand Prix award was bestowed upon Italian helmer, Matteo Garrone (who also won this same prize in 2008 for Gomorrah), for his comedy/drama, Reality, about a fishmonger who ruinously upends his life when he becomes obsessed with appearing on a reality television show
In another shock, the Best Director prize was given to Mexican director, Carlos Reygadas, for his experimental Post Tenebras Lux, which was harshly booed after its first press screening.
The Screenwriting prize went the way of Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (who previously won the Palme d'Or for 2007's 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days) for his psychological drama, Beyond The Hills. His young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, shared the Best Actress prize.
The Best Actor gong was awarded to Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, for his performance as a schoolteacher accused of child molesting in Thomas Vinterberg's divisively received art-house drama, The Hunt.
The Camera d'Or for Best First Feature went to Benh Zeitlin's much acclaimed American film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, which also took out the top prize at Sundance earlier in the year.
British director and veteran social realist, Ken Loach, took home The Jury Prize for The Angel's Share, which follows a young Glasgow man caught in a destructive cycle of violence, criminality and unemployment.
Outside the main competition, Mexican writer/director Michael Franco's After Lucia took home top honours in Un Certain Regard, a sidebar dedicated to more adventurous work. The film, which also proved a hit with the critics, centres on a high school girl increasingly bullied by her classmates.
The main prize at the Director's Fortnight went to Chilean director Pablo Larrain's No. One of the most widely praised movies at the festival, it stars Gael García Bernal as an advertising hotshot who, on the occasion of Chile's national referendum in 1988, helps create a hilariously upbeat ad campaign to oust General Augusto Pinochet from power.
The grand prize at Critics' Week - a category often known for discovering young talent - was awarded to Spanish director Méndez Esparza's Here and There about a Mexican man recently returned from America.
Find out more and view the full list of winners here.
Photo credit: Michael Haneke on stage accepting the Palme d'Or, courtesy of Getty Images/Pascal Le Segretain.
