Anatomy of a Fall Wins Palme d’Or at 76th Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet Becomes Third Woman to Win Award.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival has come to a close, and the prestigious Palme d’Or has been awarded to French writer-director Justine Triet for her film Anatomy Of A Fall.^[0] Triet becomes the third woman to win the award after Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993 and Julia Ducournau for Titane in 2021.^[0] The film, a twisty French Alps courtroom drama, stars German actress Sandra Hüller as a successful German novelist who is put on trial for murder after her husband dies in suspicious circumstances.^[0] The only witness to the death is the couple’s 11-year-old blind son, played by Milo Machado Graner.^[0]

The Cannes jury, led by Swedish director Ruben Östlund, included actors Brie Larson, Paul Dano, and Denis Ménochet, as well as directors Maryam Touzani, Julia Ducournau, Rungano Nyoni, Damián Szifron, and writer Atiq Rahimi.^[0] The jury selected Anatomy of a Fall from 21 films in competition this year – a particularly strong selection.^[0]

Other winners at the festival included Vietnamese-French filmmaker Tran Anh Hung for Best Director with his film The Pot-au-feu, a sumptuous drama set in the late 19th century about a gourmand couple who live and cook in rural France.^[0] Best screenplay went to Yuji Sakamoto for Monster, while Koji Yakusho won Best Actor for his performance in Perfect Days and Merve Dizdar won Best Actress for her role in About Dry Grasses from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.^[0]

The Grand Prix, essentially the festival’s runner-up award, was given to The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer and based on the novel of the same title by Martin Amis.^[0] The film centers on the commandant of Auschwitz and his wife, whose home is adjacent to the extermination camp.^[0]

In accepting her Palme d’Or, Triet made a point of acknowledging the protests against French pension reform, which were forbidden from the festival.^[0]

0. “A curious choice for the Palme – but what an extraordinary Cannes” The Guardian, 27 May. 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/27/a-curious-choice-for-the-palme-but-what-an-extraordinary-cannes