When Thierry Frémaux faced up to a Cannes without Hollywood movies — he was holding out for Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” which Universal opted to withhold — he knew that while the usual festival d’auteurs would yield many quality films, they might not play big across the Atlantic.
When studio movies come to the Croisette, they’re accompanied by stars on the red carpet and parties and marketing junkets. Not so this year. The two American movies in the Competition, James Gray’s well-reviewed “Paper Tiger” (Neon), and Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love,” delivered Adam Driver and Miles Teller and Rami Malek, respectively, to the red carpet, but came up empty-handed at the closing awards ceremony. All the prizes went to non-English-language films.
Per usual, the Screen International Critics’ Grid had less influence on the prize-winners than the jury, which is always dominated by actors. With the exception of Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Grand Prix winner “Minotaur,” a reworking of Claude Chabrol’s “The Unfaithful Wife,” all the prizes went to movies that evoke deep emotion. Top-ranked on the Screen grid, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski‘s German-language post-World War II road movie “Fatherland” (Mubi) shared Best Director with period gay romance “The Black Ball,” directed by Los Javis (Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi).
“We live and breathe politics,” said Pawlikowski, who had won Best Director for “Cold War” (followed by a Best Director Oscar nomination) in 2018 after waiting impatiently to accept his Palme, “and the cinema reflects that.”
While Berlin Best Actress winner Sandra Hüller (“Rose”) won accolades for her role in “Fatherland,” she will have to wait for award season to see how things shake out. With the Academy rule change allowing two slots for the same actor in the actor races, Mubi could chase Best Actress for both “Rose” and “Fatherland,” while Amazon will likely seek Supporting Actress for “Project Hail Mary,” and we have yet to see Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger.”
The question is, which country will submit which film for the Oscars? Thanks to the new Academy rules making the top prize winners from six top film festivals, including Cannes, automatically eligible, Christian Mungiu’s second-time Palme d’Or winner, the controversial Norwegian/Romanian “Fjord,” has nothing to worry about. “It’s important for cinema to cover relevant things,” he said in his acceptance speech, which he gave in French and English.
That leaves, in all likelihood, “The Black Ball” (Netflix) as the Spanish entry; “Fatherland” (Mubi) as the German entry (jury prize-winner Valeska Grisebach’s immigration drama “The Dreamed Adventure” is also German but lacks a North American distributor); Russian exile Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” as a possible French entry; Lukas Dhont’s shared Best Actor winner “Coward” (Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia), which was picked up by Mubi, as the Belgian entry; and Neon’s shared Best Actress winner “All of a Sudden” (Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto) as the Japanese entry. Okamoto thanked Ryûsuke Hamaguchi “for his incredible writing and guidance,” she said. “He’s the reason we’re here today. Thank you for recognizing us as a pair.”
“A Man of His Time” is a French-Belgian co-production without North American distribution so far.
Other films may factor in the Oscar race, including Neon’s critics’ fave “Paper Tiger,” which boasts a trio of strong performances from Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson, and rookie Jordan Firstman’s popular “Club Kid,” which A24 scooped up after a bidding war for $17 million. A screenplay nomination seems the most likely Oscar scenario. When I asked why he did not include the crowd-pleaser in the Competition, Frémaux said he needed it to serve as a strong anchor for Un Certain Regard.
Even though it runs three and a quarter hours, if Neon handles it well, “Drive My Car” Oscar nominee Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” could break into other categories including Picture, Original Screenplay, and Director. And while Neon’s “Mrs. Dalloway” adaptation “Clarissa” inexplicably played in Directors’ Fortnight, the impeccably cast (Nina Gold) Nigerian generational drama starring Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (“Hotel Rwanda”), David Oyelowo, and Ayo Edebiri will flourish on the fall festival circuit.
At the close of the awards ceremony, during which Isabelle Huppert presented an Honorary Palme to the absent Barbra Streisand (who sent a gracious video), Palme d’Or presenter Tilda Swinton, after many speeches about how films are a crucial form of resistance, cried, “Vive le cinéma!”
