The 74th Cannes Film Festival will award the Palme d’Or, its highest honor, on Saturday. This was selected by a Jury headed by Spike Lee.
The Cannes closing ceremony marks the end of 12 days worth of red-carpet premieres and regular COVID-19 testing. It is also the first major film festival since the pandemic. Cannes was able to present a diverse slate of global cinema with smaller audiences and mandatory mask-wearing. The pandemic completely cancelled last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
There are 24 movies in contention for the Palme. Although the jury’s proceedings are secret and unannounced, they can make predictions, bets, and guesses. This year’s slate featured many international top filmmakers. However, no one movie was considered the clear favorite.
The festival’s most popular films included Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian portrait of honor, social media and «A Hero», Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Chadian abortion drama «Lingui,» and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Thai-directed, Tilda Swinton – directed «Memoria». French director Julia Ducournau’s wild and high-octane serial killer odyssey, «Titane,» and «Drive My Car,» and Ryuki Murakami’s Haruki Murakami version, «Drive My Car,» and Kirill Serebennikov’s Flu story «Petrov’s Flu» by Kirill Serebennikov’s, which was directed «Petrov’s Flu» and Russian director Kirill Seebennikov’s flu tale, and the Russian director Kirill Serebennikov’s, «Petrov’s, «Petrov’s Flu»
The Palme was awarded to Bong Joon Ho for «Parasite», which won best picture at Academy Awards. A Cannes top award has been won only once by a female filmmaker (Jane Campion, «The Piano»)), so it would be a historic win for Ducournau and Mia Hansen–Love («Berman Island»). Haroun would win the award for Africa’s second film of the year if he wins.
Lee is the first Black president of the Cannes jury. His fellow members of the jury include: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Melanie Laurent.
