Day and a half late, $1.50 short, or Is This How We Say Goodbye?

The Cannes Film Festival closed the other day, announced its awards yesterday, and I'm just now (due to severe computer troubles) getting around to posting the winners. This year's Palme d'Or went to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a somber, stripped-to-the-bones Romanian feature from Christian Mungiu. The rest of the awards are as follows:

Palme d'Or: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile) - dir. Cristian Mungiu - Romania

Grand Prix (or second place, if you will): The Mourning Forest - dir. Naomi Kawase - Japan/France

Jury Prize (tie): Persepolis - dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud - France and Silent Night (Luz silenciosa) - dir. Carlos Reygadas - Mexico/France

Best Director: Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon)

Best Actor: Konstantin Lavronenko for The Banishment

Best Actress: Jeon Do-yeon for Secret Sunshine

Best Screenplay: Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven (Yasamin kiyisinda)

60th Festival Special Award: Paranoid Park - dir. Gus Van Sant - USA/France

According to Toni Collette, jury member this year, the special award for Gus Van Sant was for recognition of Paranoid Park itself and his body of work as a whole. She stated that the entire jury was in agreement with this. The jury this year really went for the smaller films over the biggies, like the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights, or Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. No awards either for Catherine Breillat's Une vieille maitresse. For US distribution, IFC Films has picked up Paranoid Park and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Sony has acquired the Jury Prize-winning animated film Persepolis, and Tartan will likely pick up Reygadas' film (as they have his previous two). Miramax has No Country for Old Men set for November, just in time for Oscar consideration, especially as many are regarding this Coen brothers film as one of their finest. Miramax will also be releasing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in early 2008 (groan). No word set on distribution for Breillat's, Tarr's, or Ki-duk's, but The Weinstein Company already had their hands all over My Blueberry Nights, so expect that (along with many of the others) this fall or sometime next year.