Winners of Cannes Film Festival are named · 2007-05-28 16:45
The 60th Cannes Film Festival finished Sunday in France. Romanian entry “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” walked away with the Palme d’Or for best film out of 22 in the main competition, a popular choice after critics had raved about its hard-hitting story simply but powerfully told.
A further sign of the growing stature of Romanian cinema, the movie follows student friends Otilia and Gabita as they are ruthlessly exploited when one goes to have an illegal abortion.
Yet despite being set in the pitiless and colourless landscape of socialist Eastern Europe, the story underlines the lengths to which friends go to save each other.
The choice was a rare example of the 9-member jury and the wider audience of journalists and critics agreeing on the Palme d’Or winner.
There will also be few complaints about other winners, Reuters informs.
The Grand Prix runner-up prize went to the acclaimed “The Mourning Forest”, a lyrical Japanese movie about mourning and grief directed by Naomi Kawase.
Best director was Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, based on the true story of French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a stroke and was paralysed yet managed to write a book using one eyelid to communicate.
Best screenplay was awarded to German-Turkish director and writer Fatih Akin for “The Edge of Heaven”, a cross-border story of love and reconciliation, while best actor was Konstantin Lavronenko from Russian Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “The Banishment”.
Best actress was Jeon Do-yeon for South Korean competition entry “Secret Sunshine”.
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