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| Rites of passage … Mia McKenna Bruce in How To Have Sex Photo: Quinzaine des Cinéastes |
The Cannes Film Festival awards focus is hotting up ahead of tomorrow’s closing ceremony when the Palme d’Or and other major prizes will be announced.
Un Certain Regard which claims to concentrate on "artistically daring films” and has included 20 features – eight of which are first features also competing for the Caméra d’or. The opening film was Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom / Le Règne Animal but the main honour went to UK director Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex which walked off with the top gong - Un Certain Regard Prize.
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| Pierre Creton’s A Prince has won the French writers’ guild SACD prize for best French-language feature, awarded to a title selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Photo: Quinzaine des Cinéastes |
Our review said: "Manning Waller views the disintegration of the friendships with a cooly dispassionate demeanour. Whatever else, their lives and relationships will never be the same again."
Chaired by American actor John C Reilly, the Jury included French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne. Un Certain Regard 2023 ended with the screening of Alex Lutz's film Une Nuit.
Among other prizes, Pierre Creton’s A Prince has won the French writers’ guild SACD prize for best French-language feature, which is awarded to a title selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
The film is inspired by Creton’s own time spent as an apprentice when he was a teenager, and follows a 16-year-old gardening trainee exploring his sexuality. Creton also features in the cast, with Mathieu Amalric providing the inner voice for one of the characters.
Meanwhile the Europa Cinemas’ award for best European film has been bestowed upon Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura.
The prizes comprise:
Un Certain Regard Prize
- How To Have Sex - directed by Molly Manning Walker -first film
New Voice Prize
- Augure (Omen) - directed by Baloji - first film
Ensemble Prize
- Crowra (The Buruti Flower) - directed by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
Freedom Prize
- Goodbye Julia - directed by Mohamed Kordofani- first film
Directing Prize
- Asmae El Moudir - In Kadib Abyad (The Mother Of All Lies)
Jury Prize
- Les Meutes (Hounds) - directed by Kamal Lazraq - first film
