Two of the Cannes Film Festivals most prominent sidebars, International Critic's Week and Un Certain Regard, running alongside the main competition, have announced their respective winners, before Saturdays announcement of the major prizes including the coveted Palme d'Or.
The Critic's Week jury, led by Columbian filmmaker Ciro Guerra, awarded the Nespresso Grand Prize to Jeremy Clapin's animated J'ai Perdu Mon Corps / I Lost My Body, the first time an animated feature has won the top prize since the sidebar began in 1962. The film is a black comedy concerning a severed hand searching for the rest of its body. In the same section, Guatemalan director Cesar Diaz's Nuestras Madres / Our Mothers, won the SACD Prize from the writers' guild, with Icelandic actor Ingvar E. Sigurðsson taking the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for his part in Hlynur Pálmason's dark Police drama Hvitur, Hvitur Dagur / A White, White Day.
In the Un Certain Regard section, regarded as the companion competition to the Palme d'Or, the lury, led by director Nadine Labaki, announced its winners Friday night, the top prize going to Rio de Janeiro-set melodrama A Vida Invisivel De Euridice Gusmão / The Invisible Life Of Euridice Gusmao by director Karim Ainouz. The Best Director Prize went to Kantemir Balagov for Dylda / Beanpole, concerning two young women as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the post-siege ruins of WWII-devastated Leningrad. The Jury Prize was awarded to O Que Arde / Fire Will Come by Oliver Laxe, a Spanish drama concerning a man returning to his small Galicia village after release from prison after a sentence for arson, and the fear and hostility he both faces and causes.
Chiara Mastroianni took Best Performance for her role in Christophe Honoré's Chambre 212 / On A Magical Night, playing a woman who decides to leave her husband after twenty years, moving into room 212 at the hotel across the street, giving her a perfect view of her apartment, her husband and the life they shared. Albert Serra's controversial Liberté won the Special Jury Prize, while also honoured were La Femme De Mon Frére / A Brother's Love, a drama by Monia Chokri, and the comedy The Climb from Michael Angelo Covino. A Special Mention went to Bruno Dumont's Joanne / Joan Of Arc, which severely polarised critics.
The Un Certain Regard jury head Nadine Labaki issued a statement saying how the jury ‘ …would like to express the great pleasure we had diving into the diversity of this selection. This on many levels: on the subjects, on the way cinematic tools were used and on the portrayal of its characters. It was very stimulating to have seen, side by side, filmmakers that master their language so well and others still finding their way to mastery. It was a nice surprise to see 9 first features in the Un Certain Regard Official Selection. We were honored to be transported into all these different universes. World cinema remains very much alive and in good shape!'.</p>
Although the Directors' Fortnight section of Cannes is officially non-competitive, prizes are awarded by its promotional partners. The Europa Cinemas award, decided by a jury of four major exhibitors, is supported by the Europa Cinemas Network, offering extra promotion and incentives for cinema owners to extend the film's eventual theatrical run. The winner was Alice Et Le Maire / Alice And The Mayor, written and directed by Nicolas Pariser, and starring Fabrice Luchini as the titular Mayor, who after thirty years in local politics in Lyon feels burnt out and exhausted, his aides trying to inspire him by bringing a brilliant young philosopher, Alice (Anaïs Demoustier), into his inner circle. The jury called it ‘ …a timely and very relevant look at the direction of European policies and politics - but never dry or didactic'.
The French Writers' Guild's top prize went to the comedy / drama Une Fille Facile / An Easy Girl, the fourth feature from filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, centring on a Cannes teenager and the eventful summer she spends with her older cousin.