Justine Triet becomes third woman to win Palme d’Or at Cannes
French female filmmaker Justine Triet has won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, becoming the third woman to win the festival in its history. As she accepted the award for her 'Anatomy of a Fall' the winner slammed the French government over its response to recent pension protests.
Triet called being only the third woman to win “surprising” and said the decision was encouraging for the future.
"We have a long way to go. But still, we have to celebrate change when it happens," said the filmmaker after her victory.
The Anatomy of a Fall tells the story of a successful German writer accused of her husband's murder. According to the plot, the man mysteriously died in the snowy French Alps. The rights to the film were acquired by Neon. Critics are inclined to believe that the film, winner of the Palme d'Or for Best Director, has a chance to become a contender from France for the Oscar.
Triet dedicated her prize to all young female and male directors and to those who today are unable to make films. In her speech, she called for "making room for them and giving them a place." This was a hint at a controversial issue raised last fall at the exhibition congress during which a number of prominent industry figures attributed the country’s free-falling box office to so-called French “auteur” cinema, and a number of well-known film industry figures called for a reduction of French films being financed and produced.
In her speech, Justine Triet also highlighted the French government's response to the "unprecedented" protest movement that swept through France.
"These protests were denied and repressed in a shocking way," the director said in her speech.
The artist believes that it is a pattern of "dominating power, unabashed power that is now bursting up in several areas; obviously, the social sphere is the most shocking, but we also see it in all areas of society, and the film industry is not left out."
The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival took place between May 16 and 27. Ukraine was represented in Cannes by two films in the short film competition and in the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival - the Association for the distribution of independent cinema (ACID). The short film "As it was" described the personal experience of Ukrainian Director Anastasiia Solonevych. Meanwhile, the Polish director Maciek Hamela's “In the rearview” told the stories of Ukrainian refugees who fled to Poland at the beginning of the full-fledged Russian aggression in February 2022.