The Best Director Award was quite rightly bestowed upon Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War, a movie staged by Poland (Opus Film), the UK (Apocalypso Pictures) and France (mk2, which also manages the international sales).

Meanwhile, Italian cinema was rewarded twofold. The Best Actor Award served to highlight the magnificent work of the Buster Keaton-like Marcello Fonte in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, a film produced by Archimede together with France’s Le Pacte, and sold by Rai.

The Best Screenplay Award was split between two titles – Alice Rohrwacher did European cinema proud, as she won said trophy for Happy as Lazzaro. Having previously won the Grand Prix in 2014 (with The Wonders), the 36-year-old filmmaker thus continues her rise to the top, as this is only her third feature film. Produced by Tempesta together with Rai Cinema, Switzerland’s Amka Films Productions, France’s Ad Vitam and Germany’s Pola Pandora Filmproduktion, the movie is being sold abroad by The Match Factory.

European film production was also singled out via the Best Actress Award, which crowned Kazakhstan’s Samal Yeslyamova for her very physical performance in Ayka by her fellow countryman Sergey Dvortsevoy, which was produced by Russia, Germany (Pallas Film), Poland (Otter Film), France (KNM), Kazakhstan and China.

Also of note is the Jury Prize picked up by Capharnaüm by Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki, a feature staged by Lebanon, with France’s Anne-Dominique Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) on board as associate producer. Wild Bunch is taking care of its international sales.

This award ceremony thus drops the curtain on a 2018 competition that proved to be of an extremely high quality (with a programme that cleverly built up to a crescendo), and which was at odds with the predictions of the doomsayers alarmed by the absence of a clutch of Croisette regulars. The gamble that Thierry Frémaux took on new blood clearly paid off, as we saw the emergence of some very different filmmakers and styles, and a new world order in arthouse cinema, with Europe remaining a solid player, Asia gaining momentum and the breakthrough of the Middle East (in particular with the ex-aequo Best Screenplay Award for Iran’s Jafar Panahi for Three Faces), plus an excellent performance by North America, with the prestigious Grand Prix picked up by the USA’s Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman.

In the meantime, the future seems to be embodied by Belgian director Lukas Dhont, who went home with the Caméra d'Or (which singles out the best debut feature across all of the sections) for Girl (presented in Un Certain Regard), a film that has already been honoured with a FIPRESCI Prize and the Best Performance Award on the winners’ list of Un Certain Regard. Produced by Belgian outfit Menuet, and co-produced by Frakas Productions and the Netherlands’ Topkapi, Girl is being sold overseas by The Match Factory.


Here is the complete list of winners:

Palme d'Or
Shoplifters - Hirokazu Koreeda

Special Palme d'Or
The Image Book - Jean-Luc Godard

Grand Prix
BlacKkKlansman - Spike Lee

Best Director
Pawel Pawlikowski - Cold War

Best Actress
Samal Yeslyamova - Ayka

Best Actor
Marcello Fonte - Dogman

Best Screenplay (ex-aequo)
Alice Rohrwacher - Happy as Lazzaro
Nader Saeivar, Jafar Panahi - Three Faces

Jury Prize
Capharnaüm - Nadine Labaki

Caméra d'Or
Girl - Lukas Dhont

Palme d'Or for Best Short Film
All These Creatures - Charles Williams

Special Mention
On the Border - Wei Shujun