2011 Cannes Film Festival
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Palme d'Or
Brandishing an ambition it’s likely no film, including this one, could entirely fulfill, The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amid its narrative imprecisions. This fifth feature in Terrence Malick’s eccentric four-decade career is a beauteous creation that ponders the imponderables, asks the questions that religious and thoughtful people have posed for millennia and provokes expansive philosophical musings along with intense personal introspection. - Todd McCarthy.
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Grand Prix
Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
As movie titles go, The Kid With a Bike could hardly be more direct and explicative in its unadorned simplicity. Which is a perfect encapsulation of any film by the resolutely unshowy maestros of humanistic portraiture, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Back at the festival that has already crowned them with two Palme d’Ors (for Rosetta in 1999 and The Child in 2005), the Belgian siblings are again at the peak of their powers in this impeccably observed drama.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/kid-a-bike-cannes-review-188473
As movie titles go, The Kid With a Bike could hardly be more direct and explicative in its unadorned simplicity. Which is a perfect encapsulation of any film by the resolutely unshowy maestros of humanistic portraiture, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Back at the festival that has already crowned them with two Palme d’Ors (for Rosetta in 1999 and The Child in 2005), the Belgian siblings are again at the peak of their powers in this impeccably observed drama.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/kid-a-bike-cannes-review-188473
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
In the last decade, the Turkish cinema has basked in the light of filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, the writer-director confirms his stature in a long, slow, hypnotic film that explores the human condition through side glances and offhand remarks, caring very little about time, especially the viewer’s time, in eventless sequences without conventional action. Even the hardened press audience at Cannes burst out in nervous laughter when, almost 90 minutes into a film running over two and a half hours, the first plot point occurs.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/once-a-time-anatolia-cannes-190893
In the last decade, the Turkish cinema has basked in the light of filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, the writer-director confirms his stature in a long, slow, hypnotic film that explores the human condition through side glances and offhand remarks, caring very little about time, especially the viewer’s time, in eventless sequences without conventional action. Even the hardened press audience at Cannes burst out in nervous laughter when, almost 90 minutes into a film running over two and a half hours, the first plot point occurs.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/once-a-time-anatolia-cannes-190893
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Best Director Award
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Best Screenplay Award
Footnote (2011)
Written and directed by Joseph Cedar
An intriguing tale of an ethical dilemma complicated by academic rivalries and family tensions is told in erratic fashion in “Footnote.” In his fourth feature, New York-born-and-trained Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar arrestingly tackles what feels like deeply felt personal material, a simmering intellectual and emotional feud between a comparably brilliant father and son, but makes several crucial miscalculations, beginning with the use of one of the most intrusive and overbearing musical scores in memory. Jewish and academically inclined audiences worldwide will respond to numerous aspects of this unusual drama, although it is paradoxically both too broad and too esoteric for the general art house public.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/footnote-cannes-2011-review-188407
An intriguing tale of an ethical dilemma complicated by academic rivalries and family tensions is told in erratic fashion in “Footnote.” In his fourth feature, New York-born-and-trained Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar arrestingly tackles what feels like deeply felt personal material, a simmering intellectual and emotional feud between a comparably brilliant father and son, but makes several crucial miscalculations, beginning with the use of one of the most intrusive and overbearing musical scores in memory. Jewish and academically inclined audiences worldwide will respond to numerous aspects of this unusual drama, although it is paradoxically both too broad and too esoteric for the general art house public.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/footnote-cannes-2011-review-188407
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Jury Prize
Polisse (2011)
Written, directed by and starring Maïwenn Le Besco
A powerhouse of emotional jolts, freewheeling comedy and socially-minded storytelling, Poliss (Polisse) reps an admirable step up for writer-director-actress Maiwenn, and one which should finally expand her audience beyond French borders. This extensive portrayal of officers working in a Parisian Child Protection Unit is packed with raw energy and visceral performances from an accomplished cast, and despite an unwieldy episodic structure, the film touches where it matters most.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/poliss-polisse-cannes-review-188007
A powerhouse of emotional jolts, freewheeling comedy and socially-minded storytelling, Poliss (Polisse) reps an admirable step up for writer-director-actress Maiwenn, and one which should finally expand her audience beyond French borders. This extensive portrayal of officers working in a Parisian Child Protection Unit is packed with raw energy and visceral performances from an accomplished cast, and despite an unwieldy episodic structure, the film touches where it matters most.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/poliss-polisse-cannes-review-188007
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Best Actress Award
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Best Actor Award
The Artist (2011)
Jean Dujardin
It’s a good bet that most contemporary directors would have a hard time pulling off a silent movie, so it’s all the more impressive what Michel Hazanavicius has wrought with The Artist, a real black-and-white silent in the 1.33 aspect ratio that takes place in Hollywood when silents were overtaken by talkies. A playful, lightly melancholy tale with A Star Is Born echoes about a young actress whose career takes off in sound pictures just as that of a veteran male star declines, this unusual Los Angeles-made French production is, by definition, a specialty item, perfect for festivals and buff enclaves worldwide but a tough proposition commercially outside France, where the director and stars are household names by virtue of the OSS capers.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/artist-cannes-review-188493
It’s a good bet that most contemporary directors would have a hard time pulling off a silent movie, so it’s all the more impressive what Michel Hazanavicius has wrought with The Artist, a real black-and-white silent in the 1.33 aspect ratio that takes place in Hollywood when silents were overtaken by talkies. A playful, lightly melancholy tale with A Star Is Born echoes about a young actress whose career takes off in sound pictures just as that of a veteran male star declines, this unusual Los Angeles-made French production is, by definition, a specialty item, perfect for festivals and buff enclaves worldwide but a tough proposition commercially outside France, where the director and stars are household names by virtue of the OSS capers.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/artist-cannes-review-188493
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Caméra d'Or (Best Debut)
Las acacias (2011)
Pablo Giorgelli
Delicate yet rigorously executed, road movie "Las acacias" touchingly unfolds a passing-ships encounter between a truck driver and a mother who hires him to get her from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. A debut feature for editor and documaker Pablo Giorgelli, pic reps a master class in low-key but wholly effective thesping, as characters played by German De Silva and Hebe Duarte get to know each other via dialogue that would barely cover 20 written pages. Slow-burning pic takes a while to warm up, but once it gets going, it's a corker that could enchant as an ultra-niche release offshore.
www.variety.com/review/VE1117945229/
Delicate yet rigorously executed, road movie "Las acacias" touchingly unfolds a passing-ships encounter between a truck driver and a mother who hires him to get her from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. A debut feature for editor and documaker Pablo Giorgelli, pic reps a master class in low-key but wholly effective thesping, as characters played by German De Silva and Hebe Duarte get to know each other via dialogue that would barely cover 20 written pages. Slow-burning pic takes a while to warm up, but once it gets going, it's a corker that could enchant as an ultra-niche release offshore.
www.variety.com/review/VE1117945229/
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Short Film Palme d'Or
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Prize of Un Certain Regard
Stopped on Track (2011)
Andreas Dresen
A German postal worker's precious few months between diagnosis and death are chronicled with an acute and raw sense of honesty in "Stopped on Track." Helmer Andreas Dresen's latest slice-of-German-life, after such films as "Summer in Berlin" and "Cloud 9," recounts how an apparently healthy father, and his wife and two kids, try to cope with the man's ultimately fatal brain tumor. Pic's standouts are the sharp dialogue, all of it improvised, and ace cast, a mix of thesps and non-pros. Dire subject matter might scare off some arthouse buyers, though fest selections and Euro cable buys are guaranteed.
www.variety.com/review/VE1117945236?refcatid=2531
A German postal worker's precious few months between diagnosis and death are chronicled with an acute and raw sense of honesty in "Stopped on Track." Helmer Andreas Dresen's latest slice-of-German-life, after such films as "Summer in Berlin" and "Cloud 9," recounts how an apparently healthy father, and his wife and two kids, try to cope with the man's ultimately fatal brain tumor. Pic's standouts are the sharp dialogue, all of it improvised, and ace cast, a mix of thesps and non-pros. Dire subject matter might scare off some arthouse buyers, though fest selections and Euro cable buys are guaranteed.
www.variety.com/review/VE1117945236?refcatid=2531
Arirang (2011)
Kim Ki-duk
The glorious agony of struggling directors is a theme that’s been around for as long as filmmaking itself. Kim Ki-duk’s Arirang explores the reasons and emotions behind his three-year hiatus like a no-tech documentary answer to Fellini’s 8 1/2. A one-man production in which Kim engages in deep conversation with himself, his shadow, recorded images of himself and excerpts of his screen performances, it is so navel-gazing it makes Takeshi Kitano’s Takeshis and Glory to the Filmmaker seem positively self-effacing.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/arirang-cannes-review-188470
The glorious agony of struggling directors is a theme that’s been around for as long as filmmaking itself. Kim Ki-duk’s Arirang explores the reasons and emotions behind his three-year hiatus like a no-tech documentary answer to Fellini’s 8 1/2. A one-man production in which Kim engages in deep conversation with himself, his shadow, recorded images of himself and excerpts of his screen performances, it is so navel-gazing it makes Takeshi Kitano’s Takeshis and Glory to the Filmmaker seem positively self-effacing.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/arirang-cannes-review-188470
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Special Jury Prize of Un Certain Regard
Elena (2011)
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Portraying the life of a middle-aged couple coming from different walks of society, the film is a story of moral choice and sacrifice.
Portraying the life of a middle-aged couple coming from different walks of society, the film is a story of moral choice and sacrifice.
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Directing Prize of Un Certain Regard
Bé omid é didar (2011)
Mohammad Rasoulov
With his fifth feature, "Goodbye," jailed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof delivers a suspenseful and moving portrait of modern censorship in the country that has currently placed him in its governmental crosshairs. Along with fellow Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Rasoulof has been sentenced to six years for his speaking his mind. "Goodbye" doesn't literally tell his story, but it clearly espouses his views, focusing on the intense experience of a young woman desperate to find her ticket to freedom and hitting wall after wall.
www.indiewire.com/article/cannes_review_jailed_iranian_filmmaker_mohammad_rasoulof_delivers_in_indict#
With his fifth feature, "Goodbye," jailed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof delivers a suspenseful and moving portrait of modern censorship in the country that has currently placed him in its governmental crosshairs. Along with fellow Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Rasoulof has been sentenced to six years for his speaking his mind. "Goodbye" doesn't literally tell his story, but it clearly espouses his views, focusing on the intense experience of a young woman desperate to find her ticket to freedom and hitting wall after wall.
www.indiewire.com/article/cannes_review_jailed_iranian_filmmaker_mohammad_rasoulof_delivers_in_indict#
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In Competition
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Un Certain Regard
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Out of Competition
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