60th Cannes Film Festival

According to many festival goers, this 60th anniversary edition offered the best competition program of the past seven years, since Thierry Frémeaux took over from Gilles Jacob as artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival. The stars were there, including a lot of Hollywood celebrities, out of competition, to accompany the premieres of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen (Brad Pitt, George Clooney) or Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart (Angelina Jolie). But the organizers had composed a rather radical selection of auteur films, cleverly using the media attention of the anniversary edition to give young directors from Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America more visibility. The main awards given by the jury headed by Stephen Frears, as well as the FIPRESCI awards, are a true reflection of this daring choice.

24 hours before receiving the Palme d’Or, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu was honored with the International Critics’ Prize for his third film 4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile), from a jury chaired by FIPRESCI President Andrei Plakhov and composed of many renowned critics, including FIPRESCI Honorary President Michel Ciment.

In the “Un certain regard” section, our award went to The Band’s Visit (Bikur hatizmoret) directed by Eran Kolirin (Israel). Sandrine Bonnaire was also awarded by our jury for her directorial debut Her Name is Sabine (Elle s’appelle Sabine), presented in the “Directors’ Fortnight”.

Cannes Film Festival: www.festival-cannes.org