Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival board of administrators has extended the terms of Gilles Jacob, the 81-year-old president of the Cannes film festival, along with its 50-year-old director Thierry Fremaux.

Although there were reportedly several big-name positions positioning for the job including French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, Jacob told AFP, that the festival’s board of administrators voted to extend his mandate as President until 2014 along with that of Fremaux.

The Cannes Film Festival is run as an association whose members are a mix of French state representatives, including of the culture ministry and parliament, and figures from the French film world, from producers to cinemas.

The next festival is scheduled for May 16 to 27, 2012.

 

 

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[caption id="attachment_1357" align="alignnone" width="500"]Brad Pitt in Terence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life,’ winner of the Palme D’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. [/caption]

The mysteriously enigmatic U.S. director Terrence Malick took the Cannes film festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or, Sunday evening,  for his film The Tree of Life-  about a family of sons dominated by a tyrannical father in Texas, and the origins and mysteries of life. The film stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and luminous newcomer Jessica Chastain. Shy as ever, Malick had one of the film’s co-producers, Bill Pohlad accept the award on his behalf. (Malick also did not promote the film at the festival.)

“I know he is thrilled with this award, as are all of us,” Pohlad said. “The Tree of Life was a long road.” Malick apparently took an extra year re-cutting and fine-tuning the film, which was originally set to screen at the 2010 Cannes film festival.

The award ceremony brought an end to the May 11-22 Cannes Film Festival. Belgium’s Dardenne brothers and Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan shared the runner-up Grand Prix prize “The Kid With a Bike” and “Once Upon A Time in Anatolia.” Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn won the best director prize for his high-octane film noir “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, about a stuntman who moonlights as a get-away car driver.

The lovely Kirsten Dunst won the Cannes version of  “Best Actress” for her portrayal of a depressed woman at the end of the world in Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia.”

“Well, what a week it’s been,” Dunst sighed, referencing the fact that her controversial director von Trier was named persona non grata by the Cannes team after his strange Hitler remarks at a recent press conference.

“I’d like to say thank you to the Cannes film festival for allowing the film to be in competition, it’s such a special night for me,” she said, and thanked von Trier for casting her.

French actor Jean Dujardin took the best actor award for his role as a silent movie star, fighting to deal with advent of talking films, in Michel Hazanavicius’  all silent movie “The Artist.”

Winners

In Competition :

Feature films

Palme d’Or
THE TREE OF LIFE directed by Terrence MALICK

Grand Prix Ex-aequo
BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU’DA (ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA) directed by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
LE GAMIN AU VÉLO (THE KID WITH A BIKE) directed by Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE

Award for Best Director
Nicolas WINDING REFN for DRIVE

Award for Best Screenplay
Joseph CEDAR for HEARAT SHULAYIM (Footnote)\

Award for Best Actress
Kirsten DUNST in MELANCHOLIA directed by Lars VON TRIER

Award for Best Actor
Jean DUJARDIN in THE ARTIST directed by Michel HAZANAVICIUS

Jury Prize
POLISSE (POLISS) directed by MAÏWENN

Short Films

Palme d’Or – Short Film
CROSS (CROSS – COUNTRY) directed by Maryna VRODA

Jury Prize – Short Film
BADPAKJE 46 (SWIMSUIT 46) directed by Wannes DESTOOP

 

Cinefondation :

1st Prize Cinéfondation
DER BRIEF (THE LETTER) directed by Doroteya DROUMEVA

2nd Prize – Cinéfondation
DRARI directed by Kamal LAZRAQ

3rd Prize Cinéfondation
YA-GAN-BI-HANG (FLY BY NIGHT) directed by SON Tae-gyum

Golden Camera :

Caméra d’or
LAS ACACIAS directed by Pablo GIORGELLI

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[caption id="attachment_1373" align="alignnone" width="560"]Stopped on Track (Halt auf Freier Strecke)[/caption] ARIRANG directed by KIM Ki-Duk and HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (Stopped on track) by Andreas DRESEN tied to win the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

In Arirang, director KIM Ki-Duk turned the cameras on himself as he is ‘playing 3 roles in 1.’ HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (Stopped on track) by Andreas DRESEN is described as ‘A story about death that celebrates life.’ Forty-year-old healthy Frank has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and suddenly condemned to only a few months to live.

ELENA by Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV was awarded the Special Jury Prize and Mohammad RASOULOF received the Directing Prize for BÉ OMID É DIDAR (Au revoir).

 

 

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Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” probably the most highly anticipated film at the Cannes Film Festival, held multiple, invitation-only screenings on Monday at the Grand Theatre Lumiere, the largest theater available there.

Audiences actually booed the film. (As the audiences in Cannes are notorious for doing when they are shocked, offended or simply bored to death.) It shocked Malick’s supporters so much, they gave the film a rather defensive standing ovation as the credits rolled.
Malick also skipped out on the press conference after the screening. The director is known for being extremely behind-the-scenes,  a very much out-of-the spotlight artist, and one of the most highly respected American filmmakers.

The AP reports that Brad Pitt, a producer and star of the movie, “I don’t know why it’s accepted that people who make things in our business are then expected to sell them, and I don’t think that computes with him,” said Pitt, also a producer on the film. “He wants to focus on the making of it, not the real estate, selling the real estate. It is an odd thing for an artist to start something and then be salesman.” Pitt, Chastain and the film’s producers braved the press alone.

Malick has not had a film at Cannes since his seminal and iconic 1979 film “Days of Heaven,” where he garnered him the Festival’s  top directing prize. “Tree of Life” is only his fifth film in a nearly forty-year career. His other films includes “Badlands” and “The Thin Red Line.”
Producer Sarah Green explained, “Mr. Malick is very shy.”

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Christophe Honoré’s film, Les Bien-aimés,  (The Beloved), will be close the 64th Cannes Film Festival, on Sunday May 22, 2011, following the award ceremony.

This represents, Honiore’s 2nd time participating in the Cannes Film Festival, the First time in Competition with Les chansons d’amour. This time Christophe Honore will be accompanied by his faithful musician Alex Beaupin and the film’s actors: Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroiani, Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, Michel Delpech and Paul Schneider.  “They embody characters that draw us into Prague of the sixties, London of the ’80s, the world of Sept. 11 and Paris of today in a singular, melancholy and romantic work of art.“

Scripted by the director, the story takes place over two time periods. In the first, during the 1960s, Madeleine leaves Paris to join her new husband Jaromil in Prague. The arrival of Russian tanks in the city marks their separation and Madeleine returns to France. In the second, in the 90s, Madeleine’s daughter Véra falls in love in London with Henderson, who feels unable of loving her. Madeleine and Véra each play out their feminine roles at the end of the 20th century, albeit with slight stubbornness, without which they would simply give in. [screenbase]

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The film Restless by Gus Van Sant will open Un Certain Regard, section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on May 12.

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Midnight in Paris, the new film by Woody Allen will open the Festival de Cannes on May 11th in the Lumière Theatre, in the presence of the Jury presided by Robert De Niro.

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