CANNES — Hosted by “Call My Agent” star Camille Cotin, the 2024 Cannes Film Festival competition awards show is underway. The presenters immediately began making political statements as the short film jury president and Belgian actor Lubna Azabal called for the release of all hostages in Gaza.
The president of the jury, Greta Gerwig, presided over the mostly female jury, which included Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, Turkish actor-screenwriter Ebru Celan, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, American actor Lily Gladstone, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, and Lebanese actor-director Nadine Labaki. French stars Eva Green and Omar Sy.
When actor Laurent Lafitte presented the first award, Chattin playfully interrupted to ask if his speech was written by ChatGPT. Playing on that joke, French director Coralie Forget took the prize for best screenplay for her “bold, beautifully bonkers” cosmetic-surgery horror drama “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood beauty and an even more stunning Margaret. As a younger, better doppelgänger, Gwali agrees to split his time.
The jury expanded the usual Best Actress category to celebrate what Lily Gladstone called “sisterly reconciliation” in “Emilia Perez.” Directed by former Palme d’Or winner Jacques Audiard (“Theban”), the Mexico-set musical — about a cartel boss who disappears only to reappear as a woman — stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and trance star Carla Sofia Gascon.
Jesse Plemons took home the best actor honors for his three roles in “Poor Things” director Yorgos Lanthimos’ surrealist triptych “Kinds of Kindness.”
The jury created a special award for Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who attended the Cannes Film Festival at personal risk after escaping eight years in prison for making the political drama “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” The three-hour film explores the country’s recent women, life and freedom movement through a family drama.
The Camera d’Or prize for best first feature went to Halfdan Ullman Tondel’s “Armand,” while a (poor) special mention went to Directors’ Fortnight selection “Mongrel,” co-directed by Xiang Wei Liang and Yu Qiao Yin.
Full list of prizes announced so far:
Competition
Palme d’Or: TBA
Grand prize, high award, great reward: TBA
Director: TBA
Actor: Jesse Plemons, “Varieties of Grace.”
Best Actresses: “Emilia Perez”
Jury Prize: TBA
Special Jury Prize: Mohammad Rasuloff, “The Sacred Fig Seed”
Screenplay: Coralie Forget, “The Object”
Other gifts
Camera d’Or: “Ormond,” Houghton Ullman Dondal
Camera d’Or Special Note: “Mongrel,” Xiang Wei Liang, Yu Qiao Yin
Short film Palme d’Or: “The Man Who Couldn’t Keep Calm,” Neboja Sljebcevic
Short Film Special Note: “A Bad Moment,” Daniel Soares
Golden Eye Document Prize: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” and “Edge of Dreams”
Guar Palm: “Three Kilometers to the End of the World”
Palm Dog: Cody, “The Palm Dog”
FIPRESCI Award (Competition): “Sacred Fig Seed,” by Mohammed Rasuloff
FIPRESCI Award (indefinite): “The Story of Souliman,” Boris Lozhkin
FIPRESCI Award (Co-Categories): “The Desert of Namibia,” Yoko Yamanaka
From some perspective
Uncertain Award: “Black Dog,” Guan Hu
Jury Prize: “The Story of Souliman,” Boris Lozhkin
Best Director Award: (ex aequo) “The Damned,” Roberto Minervini; “The guinea became a chicken,” Rungano Nyoni
Performance Awards: “Shameless,” Anasuya Sengupta; “Story of Sauliman,” Abu Shankare
Youth Prize: “Holy cow! (Twenty Gods),” Louis Courvoisier
Special Note: “Nora,” Tawfiq Alzaidi
Fortnite of Directors
Europa Cinemas Label: “The Other Way,” Jonas Troupa
Playwrights and Composers Society Award: “This Life of Mine,” Sophie Filliers
Audience Choice Award: “The Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin
Critics’ Week
Grand prize, high award, great reward: “Simon of the Mountain,” Federico Luis
French Touch Gift: “Blue Sun Palace,” Constance Song
GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: Jour2Fête, “Julie is calm”
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Riccardo Teodoro, “The Child”
Leeds Cinema Discovery Prize (Short): “Gil Sela,” Montsouris Park
