The French homicide mystery film Anatomy of a Fall was awarded the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival that took place this year.
The tension-filled courtroom drama directed by Justine Triet, which depicts the tale of a writer who is accused of her husband’s death, was deemed worthy of the Palme d’Or award.
She is just the third female filmmaker in the history of the industry to ever receive the coveted accolade, which was given out for the first time in 1955.
Sandra Huller, a German actress who previously appeared in the film that came in second place at Cannes, The Zone of Interest, plays the lead role in her thriller.
Triet criticised the French government for its reaction to the recent demonstrations about pensions when she was accepting the prize.
She went on to say in her acceptance speech that “these protests were… repressed in a shocking way,” which was spoken after she was given the prize by Hollywood actress Jane Fonda.
Massive demonstrations have broken out throughout France in response to pension changes proposed by President Emmanuel Macron, which include an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.
The British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer won the Grand Prix, the second-highest award, for his film The Zone of Interest, which was an adaptation of the late Martin Amis’s book of the same name about a family living adjacent to Auschwitz.
In the meanwhile, the prize for best actor went to Koji Yakusho of Japan for his performance as a middle-aged Tokyo guy who cleans toilets in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, and Merve Dizdar of Turkey was awarded best actress for About Dry Grasses. Both of these performances were in films directed by Wim Wenders.
And the award for outstanding director went to Vietnamese-French filmmaker Tran Anh Hung for his work on the romantic drama Pot-au-Feu, which was set in a French château during the 19th century and starred Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel.
The festival was one of the largest in recent years in terms of the number of famous people that walked the red carpet. Hollywood greats such as Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Quentin Tarantino, Isabella Rossellini, and Sean Penn were all there.
The American actor, who is now 80 years old, has said that he is “deeply moved and humbled” to have been bestowed with the accolade.
The Palme d’Or is the most prestigious award that may be won during the festival. It was first presented in 1955 by the committee in charge of staging the festival.
Triet prevailed over the other 21 films in the competition to win the award. The competition was fierce, consisting of new films directed by renowned filmmakers such as Wes Anderson and Ken Loach.
