75th Cannes Film Festival award winners: Ruben Östlund’s ‘Triangle of Sadness’ wins Palme d’Or, ties abound

Erik Anderson May 28, 2022

The awards for the 75th Cannes Film Festival were handed out tonight at the festival’s annual closing ceremony, where Ruben Östlund’s capitalism satire Triangle of Sadness won the top prize, the Palme d’Or.

Triangle of Sadness tells the story of a luxury cruise populated by the super-rich that sinks, leaving the billionaires, models, oligarchs and influencers to fend for themselves on a deserted island. The film stars Harris Dickinson, Woody Harrelson, Solly De Leon and Charlbi Dean. This is Östlund’s second Palme d’Or; he previously won five years ago for 2017’s The Square.

In the first tie of the evening, The Eight Mountains (Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch) and EO (Jerzy Skolimowski) shared the Prix du jury (Jury Prize) while the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) was given to a newcomer and a veteran filmmaker: Lukas Dhont for Close (his second film) and Claire Denis for Stars at Noon. Dhont’s first film, the controversial trans drama Girl, won three prizes in 2018: the Camera d’Or, Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI and the Queer Palm. Stars at Noon, starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn, marks Denis’ first appearance in competition since 1988’s Chocolat but had films played in the Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight sections last decade.

Best Actor went to Song Kang-ho for Broker, the story of criminals, detectives and baby trafficking directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Song Kang-ho is the first South Korean male actor win an acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi was named Best Actress for Holy Spider, as a journalist who descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called “Spider Killer,” who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

Park Chan-wook was named for Decision to Leave, his Hitchcockian detective romance starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il. No stranger to Cannes wins, the director had previously won the Grand Prize for 2003’s Oldboy and the Jury Prize for 2009’s Thirst (incidentally, starring Song Kang-ho).

In honor of the 75th edition of the festival, a special prize was designated and awarded to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for their film Tori and Lokita, about a young boy and an adolescent girl who have travelled alone from Africa to Belgium and the tests their friendship takes on.

Riley Keough, Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s granddaughter, won the festival’s Camera d’Or prize (which recognizes first films) for War Pony, the story of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. She shared the award with co-director Gina Gammell, who was present to accept.

The 2022 edition ran from May 17-28 with a competition jury led by actor Vincent Lindon and comprised of Actress/producer/screenwriter/director Rebecca Hall, actress Deepika Padukone, actress Noomi Rapace, actress/director Jasmine Trinca, director/screenwriter/producer Asghar Farhadi, director/screenwriter/actor/producer Ladj Ly, director/screenwriter Jeff Nichols and director/screenwriter Joachim Trier. The closing ceremony was hosted by French actress Virginie Efira.

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing and Joseph Kosinki’s Top Gun: Maverick all premiered out of competition of the festival ahead of their worldwide releases this summer. Cruise and Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker received Honorary Palme d’Or awards for their bodies of work.

Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared via satellite during the opening ceremony, encouraging the world of cinema not to be silent in the face of the war in Ukraine and evoked The Dictator and the courage of Charlie Chaplin, saying “We need a new Chaplin who will prove that cinema is not silent.”

Here is the full list of winners of the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

COMPETITION

Palme d’Or: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
Grand Prix (tie): Close (Lukas Dhont) and Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)
Prix du jury (tie): The Eight Mountains (Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch) and EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Director: Park Chan-wook for Decision to Leave
Actor: Song Kang-ho for Broker
Actress: Zar Amir-Ebrahimi for Holy Spider
Screenplay: Boy From Heaven (Tarik Saleh)
75th Anniversary Prize: Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes)

QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS (DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT)

Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for Best European Film: One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)
SACD Prize: The Mountain (Thomas Salvador)

LA SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE (CRITICS’ WEEK)

Grand Prize: La Jauría (Andrés Ramírez Pulido)
French Touch Prize of the Jury: Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Zelda Samson (Dalva)
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film: Ice Merchants (João Gonzalez)
Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: The Woodcutter Story (Mikko Myllylahti)
SACD Prize: Andrés Ramírez Pulido (La Jauría)
Canal+ Award for Short Film: On Xerxes’ Throne (Evi Kalogiropoulou)

CAMERA D’OR: War Pony (Riley Keough)

Special mention: Plan 75 (Chie Hayakawa)

FIPRESCI

Competition: Leila’s Brothers (Saeed Roustace)
Un Certain Regard: The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani; Morocco, France, Denmark, Belgium)
Director’s Fortnight/Critics’ Week: Love According to Dalva (Emmanuelle Nicot; Belgium, France)

QUEER PALM

Joyland (Saim Sadiq)

CINÉFONDATION

First Prize: A Conspiracy Man (Valerio Ferrara)
Second Prize: Somewhere (Li Jiahe)
Third Prize — TIE: Glorious Revolution (Masha Novikova) and Humans Are Dumber When Crammed Up Together( Laurène Fernandez)

SHORT FILM

Palme d’Or: The Water Murmurs (Jianying Chen)
Special Mention: Lori (Abinash Bikram Shah)

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.