Cannes is the world’s preeminent film festival, and moviegoers, particularly critics, can get really perfervid (and sometimes hostile) about which films they think deserve which awards — or don’t deserve awards, even. Last year, the jury, led by Joel and Ethan Coen, awarded Dheepan the festival’s top prize, to a resounding hiss of vexation from pretty much everyone; this year, the dichotomy between jury and moviegoers was arguably even more jarring. Critics seemed to almost universally want the top prize to go to one of the two female filmmakers, Andrea Arnold (American Honey) and Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann). The jury, headed by Mad Max: Fury Road maestro George Miller, included Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen (who won Best Actor in 2012 for The Hunt), Arnaud Desplechin (who won the SACD Prize last year for My Golden Days), Kirsten Dunst (Best Actress for Melancholia), László Nemes (Grand Prix last year for Son of Saul), Vanessa Paradis, Katayoon Shahabi, and Donald Sutherland. Miller called his jury “intelligent, fierce, and beautiful†at the press conference, and when expounding on the jury’s choices said they didn’t read reviews: “We avoided looking at what other people were saying.†Isabelle Huppert was the front-runner for Best Actress for her turn in Paul Verhoeven’s twisted rape comedy Elle, while Sean Penn’s panned The Last Face was the front-runner for most-hated movie of the festival. Check out the winners below.
Palme d’Or: I, Daniel Blake, directed by Ken Loach
Grand Prix: It’s Only The End of the World, directed by Xavier Dolan
Jury Prize: American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold
Best Actress: Jaclyn Jose, Ma Rosa
Best Actor: Shahab Hosseini, The Salesman
Best Director:Â Olivier Assayas, Personal Shopper, and Cristian Mungiu, Graduation
Best Screenplay: The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi
Camera d’Or: Divines, Houda Benyamina
Queer Palm (Feature): Les Vies de Thérèse, Sébastien Lifshitz
Queer Palm (Short):Â Gabber Lover, Anna Cazenave-Cambet