After two weeks of frenzied speculation about what might win the Palme d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the jury led by Pedro Almodovar handed its top prize to a surprise pick: The Square, a Swedish art-world comedy directed by Ruben Ostlund and starring Claes Bang and Elisabeth Moss. Funny films rarely take the top prize here and several other critical standouts had been given better odds, including the French AIDS drama 120 Beats Per Minute, awarded the Grand Prix prize for second place, and the Russian film Loveless, which scored the third-place Jury Prize.
After a 56-year run of the Best Director prize going to men, Sofia Coppola broke through this year, taking that prize for her well-received Southern thriller The Beguiled. She was one of many Hollywood figures to put in a good showing this year, as the Best Actor prize went to Joaquin Phoenix for the kidnap thriller You Were Never Really Here, Diane Kruger took Best Actress for the terrorism drama In the Fade, and Nicole Kidman, who had four projects at Cannes, won a special prize awarded for the festival’s 70th anniversary. Two English-language films tied for the screenplay award, too: The darkly comic The Killing of a Sacred Deer, starring Kidman and Colin Farrell, and You Were Never Really Here. Read the list of winners below.
Palme d’Or: The Square, Ruben Östlund
Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
Actress: Diane Kruger, In the Fade
Director: Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
Special Prize: Nicole Kidman
Jury Prize: Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
Screenplay: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou; You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay