The Steven Spielberg led jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival selected Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Colour” for the Palme D’Or Sunday, the festival’s top prize.
The Palme D’Or was awarded to not only the Tunisian director but also actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, an unprecedented move for the festival, as the festival has a rule that the Palme D’Or winner cannot also have a winning actor or actress. This enabled the jury to recognize the performers as equal authors in the work.
The film upset other favorites including Ashgar Farhadi’s “The Past,” which won the Best Actress award for “The Artist’s” Berenice Bejo, Alexander Payne’s road-trip comedy “Nebraska,” which won the Best Actor award for Bruce Dern, Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s “Like Father, Like Son,” which won the Jury Prize, and the Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which won the runner up Grand Prix prize.
Although Cannes is often criticized for featuring too many films from “auteurs” and only a few rare chances for discovery, a fact likely pointed out in James Toback’s Cannes centered documentary “Seduced and Abandoned,” this year was touted as important thanks to the stature of its jury, the quality of the films and the legacy of the filmmakers.
Whereas 2012’s Palme D’Or winner “Amour” may have been seen as a fluke for picking up as many Oscar nominations as it did, a seal of approval from this jury could very likely spell Oscar gold down the line.
Here’s a round-up of just some of the more notable titles coming out of this year’s festival.
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