TITANE - still © Carole Bethuel (3)

Source: Wild Bunch International © Carole Bethuel

‘Titane’

Julia Ducournau’s Titane has been awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival (July 6-17).

Scroll down for full list of winners

Ducournau becomes the first solo female filmmaker to take home the Palme d’Or (Jane Campion’s The Piano shared the award in 1993 with Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine).

Titane is Ducournau’s follow-up to her debut Raw, which screened in Critics’ Week 2016. Described as delivering “a deranged cocktail of outrage, excess, conceptual ferocity and sheer silliness” by Screen’s critic, it stars Vincent Lindon and newcomer Agathe Rousselle. 

During Saturday’s closing ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, jury president Spike Lee appeared to accidentally let slip Titane’s win early on stage, before several of the other awards had been announced.

Elsewhere, two of the major prizes were shared. The Grand Prix was won by Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6.

The jury prize was also split, between Nadav Lapid’s Ahed’s Knee and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria.

Leos Carax won best director for Annette, which opened the festival and stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.

Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Takamasa Oe won best screenplay for Drive My Car.

Best actor went to Caleb Landry Jones for his portrayal of a mass murderer in Jurstin Kurzel’s Nitram, whilst best actress was awarded to Renate Reinsve for Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World.

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina won the Camera d’Or award for debut feature.

The Short Film Palme d’Or went toAll The Crows In The World by Tang Yi, with a special mention going to August Sky  by Jasmin Tenucci.

This year’s festival marked Cannes’ comeback following its cancellation due to Covid-19 in 2020. The previous Palme d’Or winner was Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in 2019.

The jury also included Mati Diop, Mylène Farmer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hausner, Mélanie Laurent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Tahar Rahim and Song Kang-ho.

The winners of Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week were announced earlier this week.

Winners

Palme d’Or: Titane, dir. Julia Ducournau

Grand Prix: (shared) Asghar Farhadi, A Hero and Juho Kuosmanen, Compartment No. 6

Best Director(s):  Leos Carax, Annette

Best screenplay: Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car

Best Actress:  Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person In The World

Jury Prize: (shared) Ahed’s Knee, dir. Nadav Lapid, and Memoria, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Best Actor:  Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram

Camera d’Or:Murina, dir. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Short Film Palme d’Or:All The Crows In The World, dir. Tang Yi (special mention: August Sky, dir. Jasmin Tenucci)

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