Nuri Bilge Ceylan's three-and-a-half hour Turkish drama Winter Sleep had been bookies' favourite going into the 67th Cannes film festival competition, and remained one of the frontrunners right into the final strait. Many were sceptical that it would make it past a number of other strong contenders to finally claim the top prize, yet on Saturday evening it won the top award - making it the second year in a row that the longest film in contention has won (following Blue is the Warmest Colour's victory in 2013).
Awarded the gong by Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman, Ceylan also expressed surprise at the decision, but said he was very pleased to win, especially in the year which marks the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema. He thanked the jury and dedicated the award 'to the young people of Turkey, those who lives during the last year.'
The decision meant that the Dardennes brothers left Cannes empty-handed, after many had speculated that they would make history by becoming the first directors to win three Palme d'Ors for their much-acclaimed socio-realist drama Two Days, One Night. But in the end that film did not even pick up the best actress award for the hotly-tipped Marion Cotillard, who lost out to Julianne Moore for her part as an unravelling star in David Cronenberg's acid Hollywood satire Maps to the Stars.
One anticipated call was the naming of Timothy Spall as best actor in Mike Leigh's biopic of the artist JMW Turner. In a speech peppered by Spall hunting for his glasses and mobile phone, which he'd left on, causing much audio feedback, Spall thanked a great number of the film's cast and crew, as well as 'my darling wife, my brothers, my mother in hospital in south Kent, my darling children'.
He recalled watching the ceremony from his hospital bed 18 years before, when he was suffering from leukemia, and when one of his and Leigh's previous collaborations, Secrets and Lies, won the Palme d'Or. He had been the bridesmaid many times, he said 'but this is the first time I've ever been the bride'.
Spall's chief competition for the prize came from Steve Carell for his portrayal of an eccentric philanthropist and wrestling nut in macho potboiler Foxcatcher. In fact that film won a surprise prize for its director, Bennett Miller, whose previous movies include Moneyball and Capote. Miller thanked Carell, plus co-stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, in his speech.
A late spurt of momentum for Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan was only enough, in the end, to secure it the best screenplay award. Based on the Book of Job, Leviathan tells the story of a man battling endemic corruption across the church and state and modern-day Russia. This, despite being part-funded by the Ministry of Culture.
The Wonders, one of the two films in competition directed by a woman - Alice Rohrwacher, 33 - won the Grand Prix (or, runner's up award). The jury prize for third place was a tie between the legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard for Goodbye to Language, a 3D film starring his own dog and the youngest director in competition, Xavier Dolan, for his film Mommy, about the relationship between a teenage with ADHD and his mother.
Dolan, 25, and Godard, 83, took to the stage together, where Godard spoke only briefly and Dolan made an emotional speech thanking his family and the jury president, Jane Campion, whose film The Piano was one of the first he saw. 'She made me want to write roles for women, beautiful women with souls and will,' said Dolan.
This year's jury was headed up by Campion and also included the directors Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Winding Refn, as well as the actors Willem Dafoe and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Eighteen features battled it out in the competition strand of the 67th Cannes film festival. The winners in the sidebars were announced yesterday, with canine horror White God taking the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section, while Annie Silverstein's Skunk took top honours in the Cinefoundation. The Tribe triumphed in Critics' Week, while Love at First Fight won the top gong at the Directors' Fortnight.
Many of the highest profile films screened outside the main battleground. Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, Lost River, played in Un Certain Regard, to generally disappointed reviews, while Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York was not even officially part of the competition. The lion's share of column inches were taken by those, as well as by Grace of Monaco, the appalling-reviewed opening film, which screened out of competition. Full list of winners
Palme d'Or: Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge CeylonGrand Prix: The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher)Director: Bennett Miller, FoxcatcherActor: Timothy Spall, Mr TurnerActress: Julianne Moore, Maps to the StarsJury Prize: Mommy (Xavier Dolan) and Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)Screenplay: Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, Leviathan * How the ceremony unfolded
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/24/cannes-2014-winter-sleep-palme-d-or
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