The Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or prize goes to South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's social satire "Parasite"

CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or prize goes to South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's social satire "Parasite" </s> CANNES, France — The Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or prize goes to South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s social satire “Parasite” </s> South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s social satire Parasite, about a poor family of hustlers who find jobs with a wealthy family, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.

The win for Parasite on Saturday marks the first Korean film to ever win the Palme.

In the festival’s closing ceremony, jury president Alejandro Inarritu said the choice had been “unanimous” for the nine-person jury.

The genre-mixing film had arguably been celebrated more than others at Cannes this year, hailed by critics as the best yet from the 49-year-old director of Snowpiercer and Okja.

It was the second straight Palme victory for an Asian director.

Last year, the award went to Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters, a film also about an impoverished family.

“We shared the mystery of the unexpected way this film took us through different genres, speaking in a funny, humorous and tender way of no judgement of something so relevant and urgent and so global,” Mr Inarritu told reporters after the ceremony.

Many of the awards at Cannes were given to social and political tales that depicted geopolitical dramas in localised stories, from African shores to Paris suburbs.

The festival’s second place award, the Grand Prize, went to French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s feature-film debut, Atlantics.

The film by Diop, the first black female director ever in competition in Cannes, views the migrant crisis from the perspective of Senegalese women left behind after many young men flee by sea to Spain.

Although few quibbled with the choice of Bong, some had expected Cannes to make history by giving the Palme to a female filmmaker for just the second time.

Celine Sciamma’s period romance Portrait Of A Lady On Fire was the Palme pick for many critics this year.

Instead, Sciamma ended up with best screenplay.

In the festival’s 72-year history, only Jane Champion has won the prize in 1993 for The Piano, tying with Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine.

Best actor went to Antonio Banderas for Pedro Almodovar’s reflective drama Pain And Glory.

In the film, one of the most broadly acclaimed of the festival, Banderas plays a fictionalised version of Almodovar looking back on his life and career.

“The best is still to come,” said Banderas, accepting the award.

The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who have already twice won the Palme d’Or, took the best director prize for Young Ahmed, their portrait of Muslim teenager who becomes radicalised by a fundamentalist imam.

The jury prize, or third place, was split between two socially conscious thrillers: The French director Ladj Ly’s feature-film debut Les Miserables and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Bacurau.

Ly called his film an alarm bell about youths living in the housing projects of Paris’ suburbs.

Filho viewed his feverish, violent Western about a rural Brazilian community defending itself from a hard-to-comprehend invasion as a reflection of President Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

British actress Emily Beecham won best actress for her performance in Jessica Hausner’s science-fiction drama Little Joe.

The jury also gave a special mention to Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven.

The Camera d’Or, an award given for best first feature from across all of Cannes’ sections, went to Cesar Diaz’s Our Mothers, a drama about the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980s.

The ceremony Saturday brought to a close a Cannes Film Festival that was riven with concerns for its own relevancy.

It had to contend, most formidably, with the cultural television force of Game Of Thrones.

The continuing rise of streaming was also a constant subject around the festival.

Two years ago, Bong was in Cannes’ competition with Okja, a movie distributed in North America by Netflix.

After it and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, another Netflix release — premiered at Cannes, the festival ruled that all future films in competition needed French theatrical distribution.

Netflix has since withdrawn from the festival on the French Riviera.

This year, bowing to pressure from 5050×2020, the French version of Time’s Up, the festival released gender breakdowns of its submissions and selections.

Cannes said about 27% of its official selections were directed by women.

The 21-film main slate included four films directed by women, which tied the festival’s previous high.

The 72nd Cannes had its share of red-carpet dazzle, too.

Sir Elton John brought his biopic Rocketman to the festival, joining star Taron Egerton for a beachside duet after the premiere.

And Quentin Tarantino unveiled his 1960s Los Angeles tale Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, 25 years after the director’s Pulp Fiction won the Palme d’Or.

Tarantino, who attended the closing ceremony, did not go home empty handed.

On Friday, a prominent player in his film won the annual Palme Dog, an award given by critics to Cannes’ best canine. </s> PARIS
• The Cannes jury were "bitten" by South Korean film Parasite, awarding it the top Palme d'Or prize on Saturday.

The ferocious satire and critical favourite is directed by Bong Joon-ho who said "I never imagined this" when he accepted the honour.

This is the first time a South Korean movie has won the Palme d'Or.

Sylvester Stallone, who was honoured at the festival, presented the Grand Prix, or second prize, to French-Senegalese film-maker Mati Diop for her feature debut, Atlantics.

French director Celine Sciamma won best screenplay for Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. Another critical favourite, this love story set in the 18th century centres on a female painter and a young woman whose portrait she is doing.

The best actress prize was presented to Emily Beecham, star of Little Joe, a mordant, amusing movie from Austrian director Jessica Hausner.

Antonio Banderas, star of Pedro Almodovar's widely loved Pain And Glory, got the best actor nod.

"This is my night of glory," he said, as the audience burst into applause.

One of the biggest surprises came in the best director race, won by Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for Young Ahmed.

They have won the Palme d'Or twice but their new movie was seen by many critics as a disappointment.

The most hotly anticipated film in the festival, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, left without any prizes. </s> CANNES, France, May 25 (Reuters) - “Parasite”, a dark comedy by South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, won the top Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.

The Cannes film festival also shone a light on newcomers.

“Atlantics”, a haunting ghost story about migrants directed by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, won the runner-up Grand Prix award.

The movie, based on her 2009 short documentary, was Diop’s first ever feature length film. (Reporting by Sarah White, Editing by Inti Landauro) </s> Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho on Saturday became the first South Korean to win Cannes Film Festival's prestigious top prize, the Palme d'Or, with his film "Parasite."

The tragicomic film explores the growing gap between rich and poor by telling the story of two families at opposite ends of the economic spectrum in South Korea.

"The film is laugh-out-loud funny, an astute blend of humanity and absurdity, thrilling until its final depraved moments, a pristinely shot modern architectural feast for the eyes, a razor-sharp socioeconomic critique, and a cryptic operatic drama," wrote film-making news site Film School Rejects in a review.

Read more: Cannes film fest 2019: The tops and the flops
• Best director — Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for "Young Ahmed"
• Best actress — British actress Emily Beecham for "Little Joe"
• Best screenplay — French screenwriter Celine Sciamma for "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"
• Special mention — Palestinian director Elia Suleiman for "It Must Be Heaven"

For many critics, the choice for the top prize among the 21 contenders was especially difficult at the world's most influential international film festival.

Some believed Sciamma would win it to make her only the second female to do so in the prize's history. Others thought Spanish heavyweight Pedro Almodovar would pick it up with his most personal film to date, "Dolor Y Gloria."

Instead, Bong became the first South Korean to do so. He is best known for his dramatic films "Snowpiercer" and "Okja."

Read more: Cannes: 10 things to know about the world's most important film festival </s> Thomas Page , CNN Written by

Bong Joon-ho of South Korea won the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, on Saturday for his seventh feature film, "Parasite." It's the first time the director has won what is considered by many the highest honor in world cinema.

French-Senegalese director Mati Diop , in her first time at Cannes and as the first black woman in competition in the festival's 72-year history, won the Grand Prix award for her first narrative feature "Atlantics," a magical-realist take on migration in Senegal.

"Les Miserables" by Ladj Ly and "Bacurau" by Brazilian duo Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles shared the Jury Prize, the festival's approximate of third place.

"Parasite" by South Korean Bong Joon-ho has won the director his film Palme d'Or. Credit: CJ/ENM Corporation/Barunson/E&A

All four prize-winning films addressed hot-button issues: migration in West Africa, contemporary working class struggles in France and South Korea and a satirical riposte to right-wing politics in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the prize for best director went to the Dardenne brothers for "Young Ahmed" and the screenwriting prize was awarded to Celine Sciamma for "Portrait of a Lady on Fire."

Emily Beecham was named best actress for her performance in Jennifer Hausner's "Little Joe" while Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize for Pedro Almodovar's "Pain and Glory," in which he played a version of the director in Almodovar's fictionalized autobiography.

Camera d'Or, the award for best first feature, went to Cesar Diaz for "Our Mothers," screening in the Critics Week strand of the festival.



























































1 / 30 – 'Oh Mercy! (Roubaix, Une Lumiere)' Winnie Harlow wears a Ralph & Russo to the premiere of "Oh Mercy! (Roubaix, Une Lumiere)." Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Speculation abounded as to whom the Alejandro Inarritu-led jury would bestow honors, particularly given this year's director-heavy ranks including Yorgos Lanthimos ("The Favourite"), Alice Rohrwacher ("Happy As Lazzaro"), Kelly Reichardt ("Certain Women") and Pawel Pawlikowski ("Cold War"). Predicting the Palme d'Or has long been considered a fool's errand, and this jury contained many strong, distinctive voices.

The decision to award Bong the Palme was not wholly unexpected and was a welcome choice among critics, many of whom had lobbied hard for the film as it competed against films by other Cannes heavyweights including Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino and Ken Loach.

For more festival highlights, read on.

12 days of cinephilia

Cannes in festival fever is a curious beast: a place where you can walk past " Avengers: Endgame " co-director Joe Russo wandering the street unmolested, but where Argentine provocateur Gaspar Noe is mobbed after subjecting an audience to 10 straight minutes of strobe lighting.

That's not to say multibillion-dollar franchises hold no currency here -- the busy film market keeps the lights on for everyone, after all -- but the festival knows what it likes and isn't about to change its stripes any time soon.

After much Netflix-related hand-wringing it ended up being a classic year. The Cannes old boys' club was out in force, with new films from Jim Jarmusch, Almodovar, Loach, Terrence Malick, Tarantino and Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. Some were well received, others considered lesser works, but most showed seasoned directors sticking to their respective lanes.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays an over the hill movie star questioning his place in the industry in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood." Credit: Sony Pictures International

Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood" and Malick's "A Hidden Life" were described as a return to form. The former was a typically garrulous eulogy to Hollywood's golden era co-opting the murder of Sharon Tate, the latter an ode to personal faith via the story of conscientious objector Franz Jaegerstaetter. Both directors played fast and loose with history and had critics wondering whether some cuts -- particularly in Tarantino's third act -- might have helped their causes here.

The Dardenne brothers' "Young Ahmed," about the radicalization of a young Muslim in Belgium, was less provocative than it looked on paper. The same couldn't be said for Abdellatif Kechiche's "Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo," a " three-and-a-half-hour testament to twerking " and male gaze bonanza.

Adele Haenel and Noemie Merlant in "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," an 18th century love story by French director Celine Sciamma. Credit: Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma

Offering a tonic were first-timers Sciamma and Diop , who respectively lit up the competition with "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," a lesbian romance set in 18th-century France, and "Atlantics," a magical-realist take on Senegalese migration.

Diop became the first black woman in competition in the festival's 72-year history, while Leyna Bloom became the first transgender lead in the official selection in "Port Authority," a New York-set love story revolving around the kiki ballroom scene.

Leyna Bloom attends the photocall for "Port Authority." Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

Burnishing her film's credentials, Sciamma, one of the founders of the " 5050x2020 " gender equality moment, proved it wasn't hard to make amazing cinema with women on both sides of the camera and for the film's news conference brought out an all-female panel.

But for all the buzz at the Palais, the festival's undisputed breakout hit was to be found over at the Directors' Fortnight sidebar.

Robert Egger's riotous "The Lighthouse" placed Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's salty seadogs on a rocky crag and let them fight like the last two rats in a barrel. Among Cannes' most avant-garde titles, Egger's hallucinogenic shanty watched like sniffing glue then passing out to "Moby Dick" on TCM. Festival staff had to contend with umbrella-totting crowds queuing around the block to catch a glimpse.

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson became the hot ticket away from the Palais with Directors Fortnight hit "The Lighthouse." Credit: Eric Chakeen/A24

Red carpet drama

Avoiding the rain, "Rocketman" and "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood" vied for the title of busiest gala.

Elton John arrived sequined and ready to rock for his biopic and by the time the credits rolled, he and star Taron Egerton were both in tears. There were tears of frustration, meanwhile, at the Tarantino premiere as many guests were turned away from the gala despite holding much-prized invitations ( the festival later apologized ).

Elle Fanning attends the screening of "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood" at the festival Tuesday. Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

The undisputed queen of the red carpet this year was Elle Fanning. Still riding a wave of Met Gala praise, the 21-year-old juror cycled through Gucci and Valentino before peaking with a '40s-inspired Dior couture confection at the Tarantino premiere. Not receiving the positive PR was Prada: Fanning said she fainted in a 1950s Prada prom dress at a party the night before, later claiming on Instagram that it was too tight.

The red carpet welcomed pro-choice activists at the premiere of "Let It Be Law," a documentary by Juan Solanas that examined women's rights and illegal abortions in Argentina. Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

Protests returned to the steps of the Palais again this year when pro-choice activists made their voices heard at a special screening of Juan Solanas' Argentine abortion documentary "Let It Be Law."

Festival report card

As the press leave the French Riviera, exhausted and afraid to look another bottle of rosé in the eye, what are the main takeaways?

Well, cinema and its spiritual home is still alive.

Cannes has manned the barricades against the streaming giants, mandated in part by French law stipulating a three-year gap between theatrical and streaming release. The festival's policy has no doubt offered pause for thought to some directors tempted by Netflix's juicy deals, but how long that will hold, given the illustrious lineup at Venice last year, remains to be seen. But no one really believes the impasse between Cannes and Netflix can last forever.

Elton John and British actor Taron Egerton, who plays the singer in "Rocketman," appear on the red carpet for the film's hot-ticket premiere May 16. Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Perhaps instead a bigger programming battle the festival faces is between a clique of venerable filmmakers on a downward curve occupying competition slots that a fresh generation are more than capable of filling with radical new visions.

We're seven months out from the Academy Awards, but some offerings here already have Oscar buzz. "Parasites" could well become South Korea's first Best International Feature Film nominee, and Antonio Banderas is being chalked up as an outside bet for the best actor race. And in the wake of "Call Me By Your Name," could "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" -- a more elegant take on a similar story -- enter the fray?

That's all a long way off, but for now one thing is certain: it hasn't been dull. </s> [This year's winner of the Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film festival has been awarded to South Korean director Bong Joon-ho for his film 'Parasite'.

The black comedy, based on class struggle, had been one for the pre-competition favourites.

"The film was made possible because of the great actors involved," said Bong. "All the others actors are here in Seoul right now, and I really want to share this honour and enjoy it with them as well."

French-Senagalese filmmaker Mati Diop was awarded the Grand Prix of the Jury for 'Atlantique', a tale of desperate young Africans emigrating to Europe in search of a better life. Diop is the first black, female director to be honoured at Cannes in it's 72-year history.

[

"I found myself at a very special time when so many young people were leaving the Senegalese coast to go to Spain, leaving unemployment, very difficult living conditions, and I was there, a close witness to that moment."

Antonio Banderas received the Best Actor Award for his performance in Spanish director Pedro Almadovar's 'Dolor y Gloria' (Pain and Glory). Banderas' role has been described as that of a kind of alter-ego to Almodovar.

](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/)



"Probably, if you think about, he is more Pedro Almodovar than Pedro Almodovar, said Banderas ."We all hide somebody inside..........when I read this script, I was very surprised, I've been friends with Pedro for such a long time. We always have our friendship moving in the same kind of universe, and that universe has limits, because Pedro is very private person. So when I read the script I just saw something that was close to the movie confessional."

A full list of winners at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival can be found here </s> Alejandro González Iñárritu and his jury will announce the festival's best performances and films.

The 2019 Cannes Film Festival officially comes to an end with the awards ceremony in which this year’s competition jury will name the best films and performances of the festival. The 2019 jury was headed by “Birdman” and “The Revenant” Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, who won Cannes’ Best Director prize for “Babel.” Other jury members included Elle Fanning, Maimouna N’Diaye, Kelly Reichardt, Enki Bilal, Alice Rohrwacher, Robin Campillo, Yorgos Lanthimos, and last year’s Cannes Best Director winner Paweł Pawlikowski

This year’s Palme d’Or race consisted of 20 movies, several of which were from previous Palme d’Or winners such as Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Ken Loach (“Sorry We Missed You”), and the Dardenne Brothers (“The Young Ahmed”). Whichever film wins the Palme d’Or will follow last year’s pick “Shoplifters,” the acclaimed Hirokazu Kore-eda drama that went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2019 Oscars.

In addition to the Palme d’Or, awards will be given out to the best actor and actress in competition, as well as screenplay honors. The third pick for best film gets awarded the Jury Prize (last year it was Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum”), while the second place movie gets the Grand Prix honor (Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” took home the honor last year).

One winner that has already been announced prior to the awards ceremony is Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” The drama was named the winner of the 2019 Queer Palm, and it’s the first time a woman director has received the honor since Cannes started awarding the prize in 2010. Greek filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos won the short film Queer Palme with “The Distance Between Heaven and Us.”

The full list of winners for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival is below. IndieWire will update the list as the winners are revealed live.

Best Screenplay: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Céline Sciamma

Special Mention of the Jury: “It Must Be Heaven,” Elia Suleiman

Short Film Palme d’Or: “The Distance Between Us And The Sky,” Vasilis Kekatos

Queer Palm (Short): “The Distance Between Us And The Sky,” Vasilis Kekatos

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The South Korean film Parasite wins the 2019 Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's top prize.