The first time a woman won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival was in 1961, when Russian filmmaker Yuliya Solntseva won for her World War II drama The Story of the Flaming Years. It’s taken over 55 years for the festival to honor another woman in the category. This year the prize goes to Sofia Coppola for her Civil War thriller The Beguiled, based on the novel by Thomas P. Cullinan.
The drama stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning as residents of an isolated girl’s school who have been trying to sit out the war. When a soldier, played by Colin Farrell, arrives wounded at their doorstep, they have to decide how to deal with the threat of discovery… and certain temptations. The novel was previously adapted to film by Don Siegel in 1971, starring Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris and Clint Eastwood.
Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled will arrive in theaters very quickly, with a theatrical release currently scheduled for June 23, 2017 from Focus Features.
The top prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2017 has gone to The Square, a new social commentary from Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure) about a museum curator whose pocket is picked, and the events that spiral out from there. Robin Campillo’s BPM (Beats Per Minute), a drama about AIDS activists in the 1990s,won the Grand Prix award.
The Best Screenplay award was a tie, and went to Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou for The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and to Lynne Ramsey for You Were Never Really Here, the latter of which also won the Best Actor award, for Joaquin Phoenix. Best Actress went to Diane Kruger for the German drama In the Fade.
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless, about a child who disappears in the middle of their parent’s divorce, won the Jury Prize.
The complete list of winners for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the 70th anniversary of the most prestigious film festival in the world, are as follows:
COMPETITION:
Palme d’Or: The Square (Ruben Östlund)
Grand Prix: BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
Director: Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
Actress: Diane Kruger, In the Fade
Jury Prize: Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Screenplay (Tie):The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou) and You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
70th Anniversary Award: Nicole Kidman
OTHER PRIZES:
Camera d’Or: Jeune femme (Montparnasse-Bienvenüe) (Léonor Serraille)
Short Films Palme d’Or: Xiao Cheng Er Yue (Qiu Yang)
Short Films Special Mention:Katto (Teppo Airaksinen)
Golden Eye Documentary Prize:FacesPlaces (Visages Villages) (Agnès Varda, JR)
Ecumenical Jury Prize:Radiance (Naomi Kawase)
UN CERTAIN REGARD:
Un Certain Regard Award: A Man of Integrity, Mohammad Rasoulof
Best Director: Taylor Sheridan, Wind River
Jury Prize: Michel Franco, April’s Daughter
Best Performance: Jasmine Trinca, Fortunata
Award for Poetry of Cinema: Mathieu Amalric, Barbara
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT:
Art Cinema Award:The Rider (Chloe Zhao)
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize (Tie):Lover for a Day (Philippe Garrel) and Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis)
Europa Cinemas Label:A Ciambra (Jonas Carpignano)
CRITICS’ WEEK:
Grand Prize:Makala (Emmanuel Gras)
Visionary Prize:Gabriel and the Mountain (Fellipe Barbosa)
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize:Ava (Léa Mysius)
21 Great American Remakes of Foreign Language Films:
Top Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
21 Great American Remakes of Foreign Language Films