[Ruben Ostlund's 'Triangle of Sadness' Wins Palme d'Or at 2022 Cannes Film Festival]
Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, a broad, raucous satire on modern-day capitalism, has won the Palme d’Or for best film at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. This is Östlund’s second Palme, after his last film, The Square, a satire on the art world, won the Palme d’Or in 2017.
Cannes Grand Prix, the runner-up prize, was awarded Ex aequo to Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon, an erotic drama with political overtones set in modern-day Nicaragua, starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn; and to Close, a coming-of-age story from Belgian director Lukas Dhont, a tearjerker closely inspired by the director’s own life about two 13-year-old boys whose intimate friendship is tested by the onset of puberty. Denis used her time on stage to call for audiences to “go back to cinemas.”
Dhont accepted his prize together with Close‘s young star Eden Dambrine. He thanked his mother. “I’m here thanks to you because you helped me find my way to connect with others through films and stories.” He dedicated the prize to those “who choose tenderness over fear.”
Park Chan-wook won best director for his romantic mystery thriller Decision to Leave. The beautifully-constructed film noir stars Tang Wei as a mysterious care worker who might also be a murderer. Arthouse streaming service Mubi picked up the Korean drama for multiple territories ahead of the festival, including the U.S. and U.K.
The Cannes Jury Prize was awared ex aequo to EO by Jerzy Skolimowski, an epic journey of one donkey’s turbulent adventures across Poland and Italy; and to The Eight Mountains by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen, which follows the difficult friendship between two straight men who can’t talk about their feelings.
“I would like to thank my donkeys. All 6 of them,” Skolimowski said, accepting his award, before proceeding to call them all out by name. “Thank you donkeys!” he concluded, before giving out a loud, braying “EO!!!”
A special prize in honor of Cannes’ 75th anniversary was awarded to Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for their social realist drama Tori et Lokita, the story of two teenage immigrants from Benin who face a desperate situation as refugees in Europe. The Dardenne brothers are two-time Palme d’Or winners, having taken Cannes’ top prize for The Son (2005) and Rosetta (1999).
Korean star Song Kang-ho won best actor honors for his performance in Broker by Kore-Eda Hirokazu, just two years after Parasite, in which Song also starred, took the Palme d’Or. Song thanked all those “who love Korean cinema.”
Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won best actress for her performance in Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider as an Iranian journalist in pursuit of a serial killer murdering prostitutes in a deranged attempt to “cleanse” his city of “evil women.” “This movie is about women, it is about their bodies [about] everything that is impossible to show in Iran.” She thanked director Abbasi for his “courage” in daring to tell the story.
SHOTS:
- VS Virginie Efira on stage
- VS Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahimi for Holy Spider
- SOUNDBITE (English) Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, best actress award winner: " This movie is about women. It`s a film full of hate, hands, feet, breast, sex. Everything that is impossible to show in Iran. Thank you Ali Abbasi for being so crazy and generous..."
- VS Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahimi on stage
- VS Best actor award winner announced, Song Kang-ho for Broker
- VS Song Kang-ho going on stage
- SOUNDBITE (Korean) Song Kang-ho, best actor award winner: "I am very happy to be with my family who must be somewhere up there. I`m very happy to share this award, this love, it`s a very big gift that I share with them. "
- VS Song Kang-ho going on stage
- VS Jury Prize (ex aequo) being announced: The Eight Mountains, dir. Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen
and EO, dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
- VS Jury Prize award winners Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen for The Eight Mountains going on stage
- SOUNDBITE (English) Jerzy Skolimowski, Jury Prize winner for EO: "I would like to thank my donkeys. All six of them."
- VS Jerzy Skolimowski receiving his award on stage
- SOUNDBITE (French) Charlotte Vandermeersch, winner of the Jury Prize for The Eight Mountains: " I love you. Thank you."
- MS Charlotte Vandermeersch kissing Felix Van Groeningen
- VS Audience applauding
- SOUDNBITE (French) Carole Bouquet, actress and fashion model: "I`m feeling a little lonely right now. Vincent, don`t you want to come and give me a kiss? After what happened in the couple there, it was very emotional. The kiss."
- VS Vincent Lindon kissing Carole Bouquet
- VS Cannes 75th Anniversary Prize being announced: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Tori et Lokita
- VS Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne going on stage
- SOUNDBITE (French) Luc Dardenne, winner of the Cannes 75th Anniversary Prize: " .... who went on a hunger strike for twelve days so that his African trainee from Guinea would not be deported from France. And that is great, and our film is dedicated to this man. To Mr. Ravacley from Besançon."
- MS Audience applauding
- VS Grand Prix winner being announced (ex aequo) : Close, dir. Lukas Dhont and Stars at Noon, dir. Claire Denis
- VS Claire Denis receiving her price
- SOUNDBITE (French) Claire Denis, Grand Prix winner for Stars at Noon: " Thank you very much. Thank you very much to you. Thank you very much to all of you. Thank you very much to the festival of Cannes of course.
It`s worth going to the movie theaters. It`s not good to watch movies on sofas. And it`s much better in a theater because the films that we see in theaters are printed in another way and they make us want to make films. They make us want to act in films. They teach us about cinema. It is there that the cinema is born and takes source."
- SOUNDBITE (French) Lukas Dhont Grand Prix winner for Close: " Thank you to the Cannes Festival. Thanks to my brother who was there from the beginning. We have been making films together since we were twelve years old. I would like to thank my father. I would like to thank Dirk, Angelo, Syl, Davie. All my crew, actors and technicians who put their heart and soul into this film. And most of all, thank you to my mother, Mom, for showing me the incredible impact that cinema can have. I am here because of you because you helped me find my way to connect to others through film and story.
So I dedicate this award to the tenderness and courage of those who choose love over fear. "
- SOUNDBITE (English) Lukas Dhont Grand Prix winner for Close: " Hold each other close."
- VS Audience applauding
- MS Palme d`Or award winner being announced: Triangle of Sadness, dir Ruben Östlund
- VS Ruben Östlund going on stage
- SOUNDBITE (English) Ruben Östlund, Palme d`Or award winner: " Thank you so much.
... and I am very happy because we had a wonderful screening here in Cannes. I am very happy that the jury recognized the quality of our film."
- PAN RIGHT Ruben Östlund hugging members of the jury
- SOUNDBITE (English) Ruben Östlund, Palme d`Or award winner: "When we started this film, there`s a group of people that I`m going to thank later, but when we started this film, we had one goal: to really, really try to make a film that would interest the audience and make them think."
