The son’s room wins Palme D’or
The Son’s Room, Italian director Nanni Moretti’s stirring account of a family whose happy life is shattered by the death of a teenage son, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival tonight.
The Grand Prize, the festival’s second-highest honour, went to The Piano Teacher, Austrian director Michael Haneke’s dark tale of a music instructor seduced by a student.
The Piano Teacher also took both acting awards, with Isabelle Huppert winning best actress and Benoit Magimel winning best actor.
Best-director honours were split between Joel Coen for his film-noir thriller The Man Who Wasn’t There, co-written with his brother Ethan, and David Lynch for his enigmatic Hollywood tale Mulholland Drive.
The directing awards were presented by Jodie Foster, who had to drop out as Cannes jury president because of a scheduling conflict for a film she was shooting.
The Golden Camera award for first-time directors went to Canada’s Zacharias Kunuk for Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, the story of two Eskimo brothers who challenge the rule of an evil shaman.
The screenplay award went to Bosnia’s Danis Tanovic for the irreverent war satire No Man’s Land, which he also directed.
The jury awarded a prize for technical achievements to Tu Duu-Chih, sound designer for two films in competition, Millennium Mambo and What Time Is It There?
