Cannes takes high horse on culture, leaves indigenous peoples behind

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At the Cannes Film Festival, Ruben Östlund received his second Palme d'Or for "Triangle of Sadness," a parody of influencer culture and beauty's capacity to open doors that elicited raucous laughter — and loathing. Following his acceptance of the prize, the Swedish filmmaker, who previously won the Palme for his art-world satire "The Square," asked the audience to let out "a primal scream of happiness," which formally ended the almost two-week-long event in the 75th edition of the Cannes film festival.

Despite it being only her second film she’d ever had in competition, Claire Denis won her first award from Cannes, Stars at Noon” starring Margaret Qualley, who she said during her speech she’d discovered at Cannes when watching Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” three years ago. Her Grand Prix was shared with “Close” by Lukas Dhont.

Park Chan-wook won Best Director for “Decision to Leave,” which had been considered a top contender for the Palme in its own right.

At the Cannes this year, ties took all the rage. The jury was headed by Vincent Lindon, inclusive of Rebecca Hall, Deepika Padukone, Asghar Farhadi, Ladj Ly, Joachim Trier, and Jeff Nichols, who ended up giving the Jury Prize ex aequo as well: to both “Eo” and “Le Otto Montagne.”

Zar Amir Ebrahimi won Best Actress for “Holy Spider” while Song Kang Ho won Best Actor for Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker.”

An honorary Palme d’Or went to Forest Whitaker and another went to Tom Cruise, “Top Gun: Maverick” star as part of a festival-spanning celebration of his career. In regards to the Un Certain Regard competition, “The Worst Ones” and “Joyland” were the big winners.

This year’s competition included new work from renowned filmmakers such as David Cronenberg and Claire Denis as well as some Cannes favorites, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne along with Arnaud Desplechin. There were also new voices like that of Lukas Dhont which brought much excitement to the scene.

Some filmmakers are reaching for their third trophy while they compete with several pas Palme d’Or recipients. On the penultimate Saturday of Cannes, though, anything may happen, and because there can only be one Palme d'Or winner, it's prudent to expect the unexpected.

Palme d’Or: “Triangle of Sadness” by Ruben Östlund

Grand Prix: “Close” by Lukas Dhont and “Stars at Noon” by Claire Denis

Special Prize for Cannes’ 75th anniversary: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes, “Tori and Lokita”

Jury Prize: “Eo” and “Le Otto Montagne”

Best Actress: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, “Holy Spider”

Best Actor: Song Kang Ho, “Broker”

Best Director: Park Chan-wook, “Decision to Leave”

Best Screenplay: “Boy from Heaven”

Camera d’Or: “War Pony,” directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough

Short Film Palme d’Or: “The Water Murmurs”

Despite the refined culture of the Cannes Film Festival, an incident of great repercussions has once again brought the public to a debate about decolonization. This time the Cannes red carpet dress code takes the spotlight when Indigenous Canadian filmmaker Kelvin Redvers, a member of the Dene Indigenous community, got asked to leave the red carpet over his moccasins- a very well-known piece of indigenous clothing.

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The director, from the Candian Northwest Territories, has commented by telling the world that culturally speaking, moccasins are “a very big deal.” He further noted that he has tried to respect Cannes’ dress code but Cannes has failed to respect his culture moccasins which "are very much considered traditional and formal clothing" among many cultures in Canada.

Initially, Redvers had traveled to France with a delegation of Indigenous filmmakers. He intended to join the audience at the premiere of "Les Amandiers" by French-Italian actor Valeria Bruni Tedeschi on May 22, following his invite.