{"id":661466,"date":"2026-05-24T01:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661466\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:35:06","slug":"director-cristian-mungius-fjord-wins-palme-dor-at-cannes-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661466\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Cristian Mungiu\u2019s \u2018Fjord\u2019 Wins Palme d\u2019Or at Cannes Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 79th Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Saturday when the Palme d\u2019Or was awarded to \u201cFjord<\/a>,\u201d the Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu\u2019s multilingual drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a devout Christian couple who are accused of physically abusing their children.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the stage, and fluidly switching from English to French, Mungiu said he believed it was important for cinema to address \u201crelevant\u201d things, noting that today\u2019s society \u201cis split, it\u2019s divided, it\u2019s radicalized.\u201d In \u201cFjord,\u201d once child protection services opens an inquiry, an ostensible family matter becomes headline news and, in turn, a proxy war between religious conservatism and social liberalism.<\/p>\n

The award is Mungui\u2019s second Palme. He also won it in 2007 for \u201c4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival was comparatively muted, particularly in light of last year\u2019s strong lineup. The absence of the major American studios was a contributing factor, as was the lack of globally recognizable stars on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

The absence of a critical favorite, especially in the high-profile main competition where films vie for the Palme, also added to the doldrums. As is always the case at Cannes, there was plenty to like and admire, but \u201clove\u201d was not heard all that often.<\/p>\n

Three of the top prizes \u2014 those for best director, actress and actor \u2014 had more than one winner. Before he announced the Palme winner, the head of the jury, the filmmaker Park Chan-wook, referred to the diversity of the panel, which included the actress Demi Moore and the director Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, among others.<\/p>\n

The Polish director Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski won best director for \u201cFatherland,\u201d a prize that he shared with the Spanish filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who made the time-skipping \u201cLa Bola Negra<\/a>.\u201d Set in different historical periods, Calvo and Ambrossi\u2019s movie weaves together the stories of men whose lives are at times entangled. At the heart of the tale is an unfinished play from the writer Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca, who was murdered by fascists at the start of the Spanish Civil War.<\/p>\n

The more restrained \u201cFatherland<\/a>\u201d is a beautifully turned fictionalized drama about a real trip that the author Thomas Mann made to Germany in 1949. For a few awkward minutes, the multiple winners for best director seemed to throw off the event\u2019s organizers, and Pawlikowski stood sidelined on the stage without an award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a piece of disastrous mise-en-sc\u00e8ne,\u201d Pawlikowski joked when he was finally able to address the audience.<\/p>\n

Wars both past and present, and from across the globe, filled this year\u2019s festival. The Grand Prize, effectively for second place, went to \u201cMinotaur<\/a>,\u201d a ferocious exploration of personal and state power. Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, the movie transposes a French film \u2014 Claude Chabrol\u2019s \u201cThe Unfaithful Wife\u201d<\/a> \u2014 to Russia in 2022 at the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As bombs fall, a wealthy Russian businessman back at home faces a series of marital and professional crises that he navigates with appallingly brutal self-interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message is clear,\u201d Zvyagintsev \u2014 who lives in exile in France \u2014 told Le Monde<\/a> before the festival. \u201cThis is a pacifist film that opposes the war waged on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin\u2019s regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best actress award went to the stars of \u201cAll of a Sudden<\/a>,\u201d from the Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (\u201cDrive My Car\u201d). A deeply poignant drama, the film centers on the director of a care center for older adults, played by Virginie Efira, who strikes up an intense friendship with a Japanese playwright, portrayed by Tao Okamoto. The teary actresses held hands as they took the stage.<\/p>\n

The best actor prize was given to Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia, who play young soldiers in the World War I drama \u201cCoward<\/a>,\u201d from the Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dreamed Adventure<\/a>,\u201d a leisurely passed, engrossing drama written and directed by Valeska Grisebach, won the Jury Prize. Set in contemporary Bulgaria, it pivots on an archaeologist who, as she sifts through the dirt, excavates the past, revealing that there is more to her than her Mona Lisa smile.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Marre won the screenwriting award for his powerful French World War II drama \u201cA Man of His Time<\/a>,\u201d about a bureaucrat in Vichy who, with deference and chilling amorality, eagerly helps keep the Nazi war machine running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 79th Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Saturday when the Palme d\u2019Or was awarded to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[10546,289473,283366,289469,289458,138846,289459,289461,88,289474,181621,11337,289475,289463,289464,289466,289460,289476,33191,206,289468,43399,289470,289471,289467,102793,289472,289465,289462,173843],"class_list":["post-661466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-awards","tag-cannes-france","tag-chloe","tag-cristian","tag-decorations-and-honors","tag-demi","tag-dhont","tag-efira","tag-entertainment","tag-fatherland-movie","tag-federico","tag-festivals","tag-fjord-movie","tag-garcia-lorca","tag-grisebach","tag-hamaguchi","tag-lukas","tag-minotaur-movie","tag-moore","tag-movies","tag-mungiu","tag-park-chan-wook","tag-reinsve","tag-renate","tag-ryusuke","tag-sebastian","tag-stan","tag-valeska","tag-virginie","tag-zhao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}