2009 Cannes Winners II
Among the other Cannes festival winners at the various sidebars and competitions were:
- Best short Arena (above, top), directed by João Salaviza. Arena, the only Portuguese production in competition at the festival, tells the story of a young man under house arrest.
- Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère / I Killed My Mother (above, lower photo) won the Directors Fortnight best film prize. In this Canadian growing-pains tale, a 16-year-old gay man (played by the then 19-year-old Dolan) learns something about life all the while despising his mother’s manipulative behavior and tacky taste in clothes.
- Nassim Amaouche’s Adieu Gary / Farewell Gary, winner of the Critics’ Week best film award, chronicles the lives of several inhabitants of a small industrial French town whose sole factory has been closed down. The film’s title refers to Gary Cooper, as a local boy believes his father to be the long-dead Hollywood hero.
- Corneliu Porumboiu’s Romanian drama Police, Adjective, winner of both the jury and the critics’ awards for the Un Certain Regard sidebar, follows a police officer who refuses to arrest a young hashish "distributor."
- Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric was given the Ecumenical prize. In the well-received comedy written by Paul Laverty, a troubled postman finds a life coach in the figure of former soccer star Eric Cantona.
Several of the top 2009 Cannes winners had won awards at prior editions of the festival. Michael Haneke won the best director award in 2005 for Hidden and the Grand Prix in 2001 for The Piano Player; Andrea Arnold had won a previous Jury Prize for Red Road in 2006; and Park chan-wook won the Grand Prix for Old Boy in 2004.
This year’s nine-person jury was led by Isabelle Huppert, who won the best actress award in Cannes for her work in Haneke’s The Piano Player, and included no less than five actresses from various parts of the world. In addition to Huppert, there were Asia Argento, Shu Qi, Robin Wright Penn, and Sharmila Tagore.
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
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Tags: Arena, Cannes 2009, Cannes Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Film Awards, Film Festivals, I Killed My Mother, João Salaviza, Nassim Amaouche, Xavier Dolan
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