"Rosetta," a film by Belgian
directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, won the Palme d'Or at the
52nd Cannes Film Festival Sunday. Rosetta focus on a young woman's
struggle for a normal life as she fights for employment and is obsessed
by the fear of disappearing, by the shame of not belonging. 18-year-old
Emilie Dequenne, who plays the beleaguered title character in "Rosetta"
also shared the best actress prize.
French entry by Bruno
Dumont, "Humanity," won the Grand Jury Prize and the jury handed
it two more awards, with two acting prizes to Emmanuel Schotte as
best actor and to Severine Caneele, who shared the best actress
prize Emilie Dequenne. Humanity is the story of police lieutenant
Pharaon De Winter and his naïve existence. A sober and humble man
burdened with the wrongdoing of others and suffering endlessly from
this empathy
All three who won bast
actor and best actress are non-professionals.
Pedro Almodovar accepted
the best director award for his comic melodrama "All About My Mother,"
the festival's biggest popular hit dealing with a woman's search
for her dead son's transexual father in Barcelona.
The screenwriting award
went to Yuri Arabov and Marina Koreneva for their study of a day
in the life of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, "Moloch,".
The Jury Prize was given
to Manoel de Oliveira, who was in competition with "The Letter."
Camera d'Or, the prize
for best first film went to Indian director Murali Nair's short
feature "Throne Of Death," which was presented in the Un Certain
Regard sidebar.
Chinese director Chen
Kaige accepted the Technical Grand Prize on behalf of Tu Juhua,
his production designer on "The Emperor and the Assassin."
Director David Cronenberg
headed a jury consisted of directors Andre Techine, George Miller,
Maurizio Nichetti and Doris Dorrie, playwright Yasmina Reza, opera
singer Barbara Hendricks and actors Dominique Blanc, Holly Hunter
and Jeff Goldblum.
Unanimous winner of
the Palme d'Or for short film went to "When the Day Breaks," a Canadian
entry by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. Jury Prize was shared by
Song Ilgon's "So-Poong" from South Korea and Rodolphe Marconi's
"Stop" from France.
Members of the shorts
jury were Thomas Vinterberg, president, and Virginie Ledoyen, Greta
Scacchi, Cedric Klapisch and Walter Salles.
