Latinos Awarded At The 2015 Cannes Film Festival! See Full List of Winners Here
The Cannes Film Festival is known as one of the most prestigious award giving bodies. The annual film festival recently concluded its 68th red carpet festival which opened on Wednesday, May 13, in the south of France and features new films of all genres.
Accompanying the unveiling of the festival's closing ceremony are the recipients of the awards, with a special focus on the Palme d'Or, the film's highest honor, Vulture wrote. Presiding as the festival's juries are Joel and Ethan Coen ("Fargo") and featured Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), actor Jake Gyllenhaal, Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan, French actress Sophie Marceau, Spanish movie star Rossy de Palma, Rokia Traoré, and Sienna Miller.
As for Latino representation at the festival, Latin Times noted the wins of director Michel Franco and Colombian filmmaker César Augusto Acevedo. Franco won the Best Screenplay award for "Chronic" while Augusto bagged the Camera d'Or or Best First Feature award for his work on "La Tierra y la Sombre."
Franco's English-language feature debut "Chronic" centers on a depressed nurse, Tim Roth's David, who takes care of terminally ill patients and realizes that as a caregiver, he has a different kind of connection with the people he takes care of that family members will never have, The Hollywood Reporter wrote.
"I wanted to show a portrait of how complicated these moments can be," said Franco, as reported by Latin Times. "The way a stranger can introduce himself to the situation and help, not just by doing his job but by getting involved emotionally with the family."
"Chronic" also stars Sarah Sutherland, Robin Bartlett, Michael Cristofer, Nailea Norvind, and Rachel Pickup, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
"La Tierra y la Sombre" ("Land and Shade"), on the other hand, tells the story of Haimer Leal's Alfonso, a countryman who is returning to his home he left many years ago, a separate report from the news outlet wrote. Once reuniting with his family, Alfonso has to face his ailing son, Gerardo (Edison Raigosa), who is suffering from a fatal lung disease, as well as his wife (Marleyda Soto) and mother (Hilda Ruiz) who are forced to do the grueling job in the fields to replace Gerardo.
"La Tierra y la Sombre" took almost eight years to finish, Latin Times reported. The long years, however, bore success at Cannes and earned Acevedo one of the film festival's highly coveted awards.
Listed below are the movies and filmmakers who won at this year's Cannes Film Festival, as reported by Indiewire.
Palme d'Or: "Dheepan," directed by Jacques Audiard
Grand Prix: "Son of Saul," directed by Laszlo Nemes
Best Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien for "The Assassin"
Best Actor: Vincent Lindon for "The Measure of a Man"
Best Screenplay: "Chronic," written by Michel Franco
Camera d'Or (Best First Feature): "La Tierra y la Sombre," directed by Cesar Acevedo
Best Actress: Rooney Mara for "Carol" and Emmanuelle Bercot for "Mon Roi" (Shared Prize)
Palme d'Or (Short Film): "Waves '98," directed by Ely Dagher
Jury Prize: "The Lobster," directed by Yorgos Lanthimos