The Cannes Festival 2023 award list

Last updated on June 9, 2023

As has sometimes been the case in the past, this year’s Cannes Film Festival saw a number of spotlights far removed from the cinephile issue itself. There were the reactions against the presence in the selection of Maiwenn‘s film starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, and the comments following Adèle Haenel‘s formidably well-written letter denouncing the fact that the film world continues to give pride of place to artists implicated in cases of rape or violence against women, followed by the touching letter of support (and revelations) from Vahina Giocante, who also admitted to having been subjected to very particular treatment on film, and the resonance of the accusations made against Catherine Corsini, on the one hand, for alleged harassment, and on the other, for male touching of an underage girl during a scene – without any recourse to an intimacy coach. Then there were the attacks on Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the Festival, Frémaux, who justified his decision to invite Johnny Depp, ignoring the morality issues (Amber Heard‘s lawsuit) of which he was unaware, and the viral nature of a video showing him being physically assaulted by a policeman as he rode his bike to theaters, before getting angry in return. Catherine Breillat‘s film L’été dernier (Last Summer), about an incestuous love affair between a forty-something woman and her teenage stepson, was another cause for concern. But all this was still nothing compared to the outpouring of hatred and nonsense that the political stance taken by this year’s winner, Justine Triet, will arouse on the web and in the media.

This brings us back to the many scandals that have accompanied the Cannes Film Festival since its creation, echoing society (1968, the edition canceled by revolutionary Godard and Truffaut, 1973’s Mother and Whore, which offended morals, La grande Bouffe, Pialat‘s vengeful speech, strongly booed when he received the Palme d’Or, the ambiguous positions taken by Lars Von Trier, declared in return persona non grata at the festival, …) to name but a few…. But what a pity that it takes these controversies for the mainstream media to really take an interest in properly relaying what the Cannes Festival is and remains, the biggest and most renowned film festival in the world, showing the finest films every year in its various selections (the Venice and Berlin selections remain a notch below), It’s a pity they’re not interested in relaying the magnificent cinematographic gesture of Victor Erice, a rare 83-year-old filmmaker, who, with Fermer les yeux (Close Your Eyes), gave us an intense masterpiece on cinema, its memorial power, its function, its relationship with time, even though it was incomprehensibly relayed in the Cannes Première selection. .. It’s a pity that no light was shed on the cinematographic power of the various proposals that the selection allowed us to discover, and on the prize-winners. So far, we’ve heard very little about the fine quality of Justine Triet‘s screenplay (Anatomie d’une chute, Palme d’Or), or Jonathan Glazer‘s brilliant concept in The Zone of Interest, to name but a few examples… So let’s get on with it: here are the winners of this 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, chosen by the Jury, presided over by Ruben Östlund: