The awards for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival have been handed out and the Palme d’Or has gone to the buzziest film of the fest, Abdellatif Kechiche‘s Blue is the Warmest Color (La vie d’Adele – Chapitres 1 & 2), a coming-of-age feature about an older woman who falls for a younger woman and a relationship blossoms. The film stars Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos, and was talked about as much for its quality as it was for a 10-minute, unsimulated sex scene. Unfortunately I ended up missing the feature, but IFC has already acquired it for domestic distribution so I’m sure I’ll see it soon enough.
Additional awards saw Joel and Ethan Coen‘s here).
The Jury Prize went to Kore-Eda Hirokazu‘s Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son) and Best Screenplay went to Jia Zhangke for Tian Zhu Ding (A Touch Of Sin), which I did not actually see and thought Asghar Farhadhi would actually end up winning for The Past.
However, The Past didn’t go home empty-handed as Berenice Bejo won Best Actress and Bruce Dern was a bit of a shocker, for me at least, winning Best Actor for Alexander Payne‘s Behind the Candelabra, but I guess I will just have to wait for the Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG Awards to see Douglas get his kudos.
Finally, the Camera d’Or, which goes to a director competing with their first feature film, went to Anthony Chen for Ilo Ilo, which was presented in the Directors’ Fortnight. I met Fruitvale Station director for the first time just outside the Palais on my second to last day and was almost positive he would end up taking it home. Oh well, good guy and his film saw a tremendous reception and I still expect big things in his awards future.
Congratulations to all the winners and you can read all of my coverage from the 2013 Cannes Film Festival right here. And stay tuned, I still have reviews for two films yet to come — Roman Polanski‘s Venus in Fur and Jim Jarmusch‘s Only Lovers Left Alive.
