![\"Logo](\"http:\/\/vqt.nlm.mybluehost.me\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/VarietyLogo1-300x86.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Predicting winners is always a fool\u2019s errand in the Un Certain Regard section (the second-most prestigious competition of the Cannes Film Festival) and so it proved tonight, as the little-heralded French entry \u201cThe Worst Ones\u201d (\u201cLes Pires\u201d), a debut feature from female directing duo Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, was handed the top prize by jury president Valeria Golino \u2014 one of four first films to be recognized at the ceremony.<\/p>\n
A playful film-within-a-film about the challenges and perils of street casting \u2014 following a film crew seeking out local non-professional actors for a shoot in a working-class French town \u2014 \u201cThe Worst Ones\u201d surged past a number of buzzier critical favorites and hot distribution prospects to claim the award.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second consecutive female-directed feature to be named best in show: last year\u2019s Prix Un Certain Regard went to Russian director Kira Kovalenko\u2019s gritty coming-of-age drama \u201cUnclenching the Fists.\u201d Socially conscious but mordantly comic, Akoka and Gueret\u2019s quirky film is also one to watch for the festival\u2019s Camera d\u2019Or award for first features, set to be presented at tomorrow\u2019s closing night awards ceremony.<\/p>\n
Bringing some star power to the winners list is Luxembourgish actor Vicky Krieps \u2014 recently claimed by Hollywood in such films as \u201cOld\u201d and \u201cPhantom Thread\u201d \u2014 who shared the Best Performance prize for her sly, sensual turn in Marie Kreutzer\u2019s \u201cCorsage,\u201d an elegant postmodern revision of the legend of Empress Elisabeth in Austria.<\/p>\n
Variety\u2019s Jessica Kiang was among the hordes of critics singing the praises of Krieps and the film: \u201cWe\u2019ve heard of actors disappearing into roles before,\u201d she wrote, \u201cbut rarely does a role so disappear into an actor, and become all the stronger, more subversive and persuasive for it.\u201d (She also starred opposite the last Gaspard Ulliel in a second Un Certain Regard selection, the romantic melodrama \u201cMore Than Ever,\u201d though the jury\u2019s citation was for \u201cCorsage\u201d only.) Krieps shared the award with French rising star Adam Bessa, whose star turn in the Tunisian social drama \u201cHarka\u201d inspired Tahar Rahim comparisons from critics.<\/p>\n
The runner-up Jury Prize went to another debut feature, this one a clear crowd favorite: \u201cJoyland,\u201d the first Pakistani film ever to screen at the festival. Director Saim Sadiq\u2019s tender-hearted, luminously shot queer drama follows the burgeoning relationship between a married man and a transgender exotic dancer in working-class Lahore, and prompted a rapturous standing ovation at its premiere earlier this week. Many were tipping it to take the top prize, given its combination of popular appeal and history-making background; it, too, enters tomorrow\u2019s awards a strong Camera d\u2019Or contender.<\/p>\n
Ditto yet another first fiction feature, Romanian entry \u201cMetronom.\u201d A youth-focused political drama set against the Communist regime of the 1970s, it took the Best Director award for Alexandru Belc, a former docmaker with prior experience as an AD and script supervisor on such key Romanian New Wave milestones as \u201c4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days\u201d and \u201cPolice Adjective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing the run of success for newcomers, French talent Lola Quivoron took the jury\u2019s special \u201cCoup de Coeur\u201d Award (translating as a blow to the heart, or a besotted crush) for her narrative debut \u201cRodeo,\u201d a propulsive, flashily shot portrait of a reckless young woman joining a motorcycle gang. Preventing the freshmen from having a clean sweep \u2014 only just \u2014 was Palestinian-Israeli filmmaker Maha Haj, who landed Best Screenplay for her sophomore feature \u201cMediterranean fever,\u201d a mordant parable of modern ennui and Palestinian-Israeli tensions in a Haifa suburb.<\/p>\n
Among the films passed over, then, by Italian actor-filmmaker Golino and her fellow jurors \u2014 including Oscar-nominated American director Debra Granik, French musician Benjamin Biolay and actors Joanna Kulig and Edgar Ramirez \u2014 were Davy Chou\u2019s buzzy Sony Pictures Classics acquisition \u201cReturn to Seoul,\u201d Riley Keough\u2019s co-directing debut \u201cWar Pony,\u201d Agnieszka Smoczynska\u2019s Letitia Wright-starring tearjerker \u201cThe Silent Twins\u201d and Hlynur Palmason\u2019s austere, visually ravishing religious drama \u201cGodland,\u201d which drew some of the festival\u2019s most ecstatic reviews.<\/p>\n
In her preamble to the awards, Golino stressed the difficulty of winnowing down the competition, describing this year\u2019s selection as \u201ca tour-de-force of talent\u201d and commending the filmmakers for their \u201cbravery in looking at survival and existence, in the present and past, [in ways] that cannot be ignored.\u201d \u201cWe want to see more work from all these artists,\u201d she continued, before declining to give a specific motivation behind each prize. \u201cWe could give you many boring specifics, but the films speak for themselves, and we don\u2019t want to diminish them by giving reasons. We just want you to watch them, on the big screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prix Un Certain Regard: \u201cThe Worst Ones,\u201d Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret<\/p>\n
Jury Prize: \u201cJoyland,\u201d Saim Sadiq<\/p>\n
Best Director: Alexandru Belc, \u201cMetronom\u201d<\/p>\n
Best Performance: Vicky Krieps, \u201cCorsage\u201d and Adam Bessa, \u201cHarka\u201d<\/p>\n
Best Screenplay: Maha Haj, \u201cMediterranean Fever\u201d<\/p>\n
Coup de Coeur Award: \u201cRodeo,\u201d Lola Quivoron<\/p>\n
View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French Film \u2018The Worst Ones\u2019 and Vicky Krieps Win Big in Cannes Un Certain Regard Awards: Predicting winners is always a fool\u2019s errand in the Un Certain Regard section (the second-most prestigious competition of the Cannes Film Festival) and so it proved tonight, as the little-heralded French entry \u201cThe Worst Ones\u201d (\u201cLes Pires\u201d), a debut
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,23,33,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannes","category-elsa-ramo","category-tiffany-boyle","category-variety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5293,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions\/5293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}