Jane Campion’s jury at Cannes (also consisting of directors Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Winding Refn, as well as actors Willem Dafoe and Gael Garcia Bernal) have awarded three-and-a-quarter hour Turkish drama Winter Sleep with the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) was presented the best film award by Uma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino.
Awards also went to French New Wave grandmaster Jean Luc-Godard, and director Bennet Miller for his brilliant-looking Foxcatcher. Here are all the winners…
PALME D’OR: Winter Sleep
An isolated actor deals with the breakdown of his marriage in this 3 hour plus Turkish drama from the director of Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Described by Variety as “a richly engrossing and ravishingly beautiful magnum opus that surely qualifies as the least boring 196-minute movie ever made.” Watch the trailer here (no subtitles).
GRAND PRIX (RUNNER UP): The Wonders
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher follows up her admired first feature Corpo celeste with this coming-of-age drama and love letter to the traditional, rural lifestyle of Italy.
BEST DIRECTOR: Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
The director of Moneyball and Capote wins here for the tragic true story of Olympic Wrestling Champion Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), who is guided by multi-millionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell). Carell’s performance, as well as the film, has been one of Cannes’ biggest talking points. The Guardian called it “a superb tragicomedy of the beta-male, a nightmare of the also-ran and almost-ran. It is also a deeply strange story about a strange man whose insecurities were all too ordinary and explicable.” Watch the trailer.
BEST ACTOR: Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner
Spall plays eccentric British impressionist great J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s well-received biopic. Watch the trailer.
BEST ACTRESS: Julianne Moore for Maps to the Stars
Julianne Moore wins for her role as an unravelling star in David Cronenberg’s Hollywood satire. Watch the trailer.
BEST SCREENPLAY: Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin
A black comedy and political satire, a modern day retelling of the Biblical story of Job set in contemporary Russia, from director Zvyagintsev (Elena) – possibly the best reviewed film of Cannes 2014, dubbed a new masterpiece by many.
JURY PRIZE: Goodbye to Language (director Jean-Luc Godard) and Mommy (director Xavier Dolan)
Godard’s Goodbye to Language is a hyper, 3D, digital video commentary on relationships, language and the possibilities of the image. Says The Times: “Visually, it is the most daring film in competition [at Cannes 2014] – not bad for an enfant terrible aged 83.” Watch the trailer.
While Mommy, by Xavier Dolan – at 25 the youngest director in competition – is about the relationship between a teenager with ADHD and his mother. In his acceptance speech Dolan thanked Campion (the Jury’s president and whose film The Piano was the first he saw): “She made me want to write roles for women, beautiful women with souls and will.”
