Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” Wins Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival
Cannes, France: The 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival concluded with a grand awards ceremony celebrating outstanding achievements in world cinema. The prestigious Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor, was awarded to Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu for his film Fjord. The Grand Prix was presented to Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev for Minotaur. The Best Director award was jointly shared by Spanish filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for La Bola Negra and acclaimed Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland. Belgian filmmaker Emmanuel Marre received the Best Screenplay award for A Man of His Time, while Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure earned the Jury Prize.
In the acting categories, Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the Best Performance by Actresses award for their roles in All of a Sudden, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The Best Performance by Actors award was jointly presented to Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne for their performances in Coward, directed by Lukas Dhont. The Short Film Palme d’Or went to Federico Luis for For the Opponents.
In the Un Certain Regard section, Sandra Wollner’s Everytime won the top prize, while Elephants in the Fog by Abinash Bikram Shah received the Jury Prize and Iron Boy by Louis Clichy earned the Special Jury Prize. The Best First Feature award, Caméra d’Or, was presented to Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo for Ben’Imana.
The festival also honored emerging filmmakers through La Cinef, where Laser-Gato (Laser-Cat) by Lucas Acher of New York University won First Prize. Silent Voices by Nadine Misong Jin of Columbia University received Second Prize, while Never Enough and Growing Stones, Flying Papers shared the Third Prize.
The jury, chaired by renowned South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, recognized a diverse range of cinematic voices from across the globe, reaffirming Cannes’ position as the world’s premier platform for artistic excellence and innovation in filmmaking.
