The Swedish satire The Square has taken the top honors at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival.
The art world satire by Swedish writer-director Ruben Ostlund won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, France, Sunday. Dominic West, Elisabeth Moss and Claes Bang star in the movie. Bang plays the curator of an art museum, who sets up “The Square,” an installation inviting passers-by to acts of altruism. But after he reacts foolishly to the theft of his phone, the father of two finds himself dragged into shameful situations.
Sofia Coppola became only the second woman to win the prize for best director for her film The Beguiled, starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell. Soviet director Yuliya Ippolitovna Solntseva was the first woman to win the prize in 1961.
Diane Kruger was named best actress for her performance in Fatih Akin’s In the Fade. In the drama, she plays a German woman whose son and Turkish husband are killed in a bomb attack.
Joaquin Phoenix was named best actor for his role in Lynne Ramsay’s thriller You Were Never Really Here, in which he played a tormented war veteran trying to save a teenage girl from a sex trafficking ring.
The French AIDS drama 120 Beats Per Minute won the Grand Prize from the jury. The award recognizes a strong film that missed out on the top prize.
Kidman was awarded a special prize to celebrate the festival’s 70th anniversary. She wasn’t at the French Rivera ceremony, but sent a video message from Nashville, saying she was “absolutely devastated” to miss the show.
Jury member Will Smith made the best of the situation, pretending to be Kidman. He fake cried and said in halting French, “merci beaucoup, madames et monsieurs.”
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar presided over the competition jury that included Smith, German director Maren Ade, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, American actress Jessica Chastain and South Korean director Park Chan-wook.
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