97  65th Festival De Cannes

Cannes Day Eleven: awards, favorites, Korean humor and American “Mud” (video)

Cannes Day Eleven: awards, favorites, Korean humor and American “Mud”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The eleventh day was the last competition day of the 65th Cannes Film Festival. All the finalists have already been determined and first awards have been handed out.

Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog picked up the FIPRESCI prize in the Competition, while the jury gave the Director’s Fortnight prize to Rachad Djaidani’s Hold Back.

The Cannes Ecumenical Jury gave its prize to Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, with Beasts of the Southern Wild receiving a mention, Filmmaker Magazine reported.

“The Road to” wins Cinefondation award

Russian entry Doroga Na (The Road to), directed by Taisia Igumentseva, won the top award at the 15th Cinefondation Prizes for student short films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Cinefondation and Short Film jury, which oversees the sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival, was led by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and also included Arsinee Khanjian, Karim Ainouz, Emmanuel Carrere and Yu Lik-Wai.

The second prize went to U.S. film Abigail, directed by Matthew James Reilly of NYU, and Cuba's Miguel Angel Moulet won the third prize for Los Anfitriones (The Hosts).

The Cinefondation selection this year consisted of 15 student films, chosen out of nearly 1,700 entries.

Favorites

"Amour" or "Holy Motors?" Michael Haneke or Jacques Audiard? Marion Cotillard or Nicole Kidman?

The race for the Cannes Film Festival's awards is in the homestretch, and as usual only nine jurors really know what's liable to happen. But that doesn't stop others from guessing. Eric Kohn of indieWIRE, for instance, says the top five contenders for the Palme d'Or are "Amour," "Holy Motors," "On the Road," "Like Someone in Love" and "Rust and Bone." (Three of the five – "Amour," "Holy Motors" and "Rust and Bone" – seem reliable bets, the other two significant longshots.)

On the Guardian website, meanwhile, writers Xan Brooks, Peter Bradshaw, Charlotte Higgins and Andrew Pulver rehash the festival and make predictions. Their consensus: Leos Carax's wacky "Holy Motors" winning out over Michael Haneke's more subdued "Amour,” TheWrap.com reported.

The last competition day at Cannes festival featured Korean film director Im Sang-soo’s “The Taste of Money” and “Mud” by David Nichols.

South Korean humor in “The Taste of Money”

Seoul-born Im Sang-soo has been shaking things up since he arrived on the scene in 1998 with Girls Night Out. He topped the Korean box office with The Good Lawyer’s Wife, stirred up controversy in Korea with The President’s Last Bang then entered the Cannes competition with a bang in 2010 with his sexually-charged remake of thriller The Housemaid. Just two years later, Im is back in competition with The Taste of Money that shows what became of the little girl depicted in The Housemaid 20 years later. A Taste of Money focuses on power, sex and wealth in a psychological thriller with a sense of humor about a Korean upper class family and their dark secrets and inherent greed. Im talked to THR about being Korea’s resident agent provocateur, how he’s taking on his enemies one film at a time and why Cannes audiences won’t be bored with his sexually-charged taste of money and power, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Joo Young-jak is the private male secretary of Baek Geum-ok, the ruthless middle-aged heiress and matriarch of a wealthy, conglomerate-owning family. Geum-ok covets Young-jak’s young body, and he has already sold his pride for money a long time ago. What tangles up their relationship is the appearance of Geum-ok’s daughter Na-mi. Na-mi shows an interest in Young-jak, and he is also attracted to this girl who is so different from her money-is-everything parents. Meanwhile Geum-ok’s unhappy husband, who married her for money, now wants to start anew with the Filipina maid Eva. Young-jak strives to survive in a world where money, sex and power dominates people's lives and ideology

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn of our days

The Cannes film festival on Saturday wrapped up the movies in competition wading deep in the Mississippi river with "Mud," a heart-wrenching, Mark Twain-influenced tale of a teenage boy searching for the meaning of life in a harsh world and starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon.

With snake bites, shootouts, and a happy ending, it is proudly, even blatantly inspired by the bard of the Mississippi. Stellar performances from 15-year-old Tye Sheridan who starred in last year's Palme d'Or winner "The Tree of Life" and McConaughey separate it from a pack of films in competition set in the colorful American South.

Director David Nichols' third film was the culmination of his film work so far and a decade of effort. The 33-year-old managed to scrape enough money together thanks to the critical success of his previous two pictures: 2007's "Shotgun Stories," and last year's award-winning "Take Shelter."

The story of young Ellis on his search for a parental role model borrows from the sacrifice and friendship themes of Twain's classic "Huckleberry Finn," whose fatherless main character embarks on a Mississippi odyssey of self-discovery, according to The Associated Press .

Cannes closing ceremony due May 27

With the competition days in the past, the French capital of cinema will host the closing and awards ceremonies for 65th Cannes Film Festival on May 27.

Marina Ananikyan / PanARMENIAN News
28  17.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 1
25  18.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 2
31  19.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 3
24  20.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 4
31  21.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 5
22  22.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 6
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42  24.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 8
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39  26.05.12 - 65th Festival De Cannes. Day 10
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