This year's Cannes Film Festival awarded the Palme d'Or to Cristian Mungiu's Fjord, a moderate drama about a couple on trial for child abuse that fails to match the director's previous triumph, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The film stars Sebastian Stan as a grumpy Romanian IT engineer, shot in austere longshot, and explores cultural differences within Europe, but feels like a contrived coproduction.
Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur, a stunning Russian parable of violence and denial, was the standout film and deserved the top prize, but had to settle for the Grand Prix. Valeska Grisebach's The Dreamed Adventure won the Jury Prize, an interesting choice though not her best work. Pawel Pawlikowski's Fatherland earned him a share of the Best Director prize, a gripping portrait of Thomas Mann post-war.
Best Actress went jointly to Tao Okamoto and Virginie Efira for Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, a middlebrow high-concept film about a French care home supervisor and a Japanese stage director. The performances were impeccable, but the film's praise left many cold. Best Actor was shared by Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne for Lukas Dhont's Coward, a gay romance set in World War I, which felt less groundbreaking than the jury thought.
Overall, the jury's choices reflected a festival under pressure, favouring established names over more daring works. While some prizes, like the screenplay award for Emmanuel Marre's Notre Salut, were well-deserved, the Palme d'Or for Fjord was a missed opportunity to honour truly exceptional cinema.
