Cannes Closing Ceremony Tomorrow - Any Guesses?
Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 11:53AM 
The 69th annual Festival du Cannes wraps up this weekend with reprise screenings of competition titles and the closing ceremony tomorrow evening at 7:15 PM (Cannes time so a handful of hours earlier here in NYC). Sean Penn's The Last Face starring Javier Bardem and Charlize Theron (pictured in all her androgynous chic, left, at the premiere), Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman (which takes its title from an in movie amateur production of Death of a Salesman), and Paul Verhoeven's Elle starring Isabelle Huppert were among the last titles to premiere. Don't expect The Last Face, which was met with hostility to show up in the prizes.
Here are the 21 competition titles loosely grouped by your hosts vague perceptions of how well received they were (you might group them differently as its my policy not to read full reviews from Cannes - which tend to be spoiler filled for films that are months away from release). George Miller's jury will name one of these the Palme D'Or winner, one the Jury Prize winner, and then we'll see who takes Director, Actress (we have a few ideas as to who might win), and Actor. Depending on how the jury plays it we might get a couple of other prizes, too...
So all that remains is for us to wonder which films Miller, Kiki Dunst, Mads Mikkelsen and the rest really took too, you know?
Very Well Received
• Graduation (Mungiu, Romania)
• Sieranevada (Puiu, Romania)
• Toni Erdmann (Ade, Germany)
Positive Reception but is there any "award this!" passion?
• Aquarius (Filho, Brazil)
• I, Daniel Blake (Loach, UK)
• The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, South Korea)
• Loving (Nichols, US)
• The Salesman (Farhadi, Iran)
• Paterson (Jarmusch, US)
• The Unknown Girl (The Dardenne Brothers, Belgium) ... but they always win something
Polarizing (?) but all you need is a few devout fans on the jury and being booed is more in-the-moment festival flavor than actual critical assessment
• American Honey (Arnold, UK)
• Elle (Verhoeven, France)
• Ma Loute (Dumont, France)
• Personal Shopper (Assayas, France)
• Staying Vertical (Guiraudie, France)
Muted Response
• Julieta (Almodóvar, Spain)
• Ma Rosa (Mendoza, The Phillipines)
Consensus Wasn't All That Friendly
• From the Land of the Moon (Garcia, France)
• It's Only the End of the World (Xavier Dolan, Canada/France) - but keep in mind that he always wins something so who knows...
• The Last Face (Penn, US)
• The Neon Demon (Refn, Denmark/UK/France)
What to watch for in the prizes.
Jane Campion is the only female director to ever win the Palme D'Or (for The Piano in 1993) so all eyes should be on Maren Ade from Germany (Toni Erdmann) and Andrea Arnold (of Fish Tank fame) for American Honey to see if we finally have a second female auteur awarded. You should also start considering a lot of these titles in terms of possible Oscar submissions for their countries: Will Brazil submit Aquarius? How will Romania choose between its films (given that their festival exports are magically always well reviewed)? Will The Unknown Girl be the fifth Belgian submission from the Dardenne brothers and if so will Oscar ever nominate those two?
Nellie wins the Palm Dog
Other Juries
This year's Palm Dog (an unofficial jury award for the best dog in a movie) went to "Nellie" from Jim Jarmusch's Paterson. This is sadly a posthumous prize (the first ever for a Palm Dog) since Nellie passed away a couple of months ago. Can Adam Driver join her as a prize winner by taking Best Actor in the competition lineup?
The Cinefoundation jury (led by Naomi Kawase) announced their short film awards already.
1st Prize: Anna, Or Sinai (Israel, 24 minutes)
2nd Prize: In the Hills, Hamid Ahmadi (UK/Iran, 21 minutes)
3rd Prize: (tie) The Noise of Licking, Nadja Andrasev (Hungary, 9 minutes) *animated*
The Guilt, Probably, Michael Labarca (Venezuela, 14 minutes)
The Camera D'Or, the very coveted prize for new filmmakers, has its own jury since it pulls from several fields of titles - 23 films are eligible this year. The jury is led by director Catherine Corsini.
Reader Comments (14)
George Miller was in the Cannes jury when Rosetta beat All About My Mother. Maybe it's time to make up for that?
I saw Julieta in Spain two weeks ago. It was great, very dark and sad Almodóvar. Truly depressing. That's why people are not reacting so well, but it's just a great movie.
"You should also start considering a lot of these titles in terms of possible Oscar submissions"
Hm. Is it okay if for now I just start considering a lot of these titles in terms of wondering whether they might make an emotional impact on me and stay in my memory for a long time?
Goran -- NO. haha. you know we actually care about cinema but it's just a hook we use to keep interest up in movies people have to wait years to see.
2016's turning out to be a bad yr for Charlize.
Can we blame Sean Penn for Charlize's bad year?
What happened to Penn after his 2nd Oscar.
I know, Nathaniel and - putting aside my snarkiness for four seconds - it *is* much appreciated!
Meanwhile Cate Blanchett has been confirmed as Hela in Thor:Ragnarok! That first concept art picture of Hela about to overtake the city deserves recognition, come on!
Everything I'm looking forward to is in the 'Consensus Wasn't All That Friendly‘ category.
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Also, don't say Charlize is having a bad year, if you say it you feel it. Bad aura all around.
She will rise like a queen as she always does.
2017, we see her.
Wide Cannes prediction:
Palme: Toni Erdmann
Grand Prix: Graduation
Jury Prize: Elle
Actor: Adam Driver in Paterson
Actress: Braga in Aquarius
Screenplay: the Saleman
Director: Arnold for American Honey
"Consensus Wasn't All That Friendly" -- Nice way of putting it! The cruelest reviews I have read in years. Some even demand resignations!
I want awards for Driver, Braga and Verhoeven.
Palme: Toni Erdmann
Grand Prix: The Salesman
Jury Prize: Graduation
Actor: Dave Johns, I Daniel Blake
Actress: Sonia Braga, Aquarius
Screenplay: Jeff Nichols, Loving
Director: Paul Verhoeven, Elle
The Jury selected awful winners. Yes from a far and not having seen any of the actual movies I'm saying this.