French Thriller "Anatomy of a Fall" Won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or Award

Anatomy of a Fall a French murdeɼ mystery film won this year’s top award at the Cannes Film Festival. Director Justine Triet received the Palme d’Or for her suspenseful courtroom drama, which tells the story of a woman accused of muɼdering her husband.

She is only the third female filmmaker to receive the prestigious award presented for the first time in 1955. The Zone of Interest, the Cannes runner-up, also stars German actress Sandra Hüller in its thriller. Triet criticized the French government’s handling of recent pension protests as she won the award.

After receiving the honor from actress Jane Fonda, she noted in her acceptance speech that “These protests were… repressed in a shocking way.”

France has seen widespread opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s pension changes, which include raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Triet also criticized the “commercialization of culture” by the government, which prompted France’s Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak to respond that she was “gobsmacked” by the “unfair” remarks.

Rima Abdul Malak shared a Tweet on her Twitter account on May 28. Please see the tweet we provided below.

Heureuse de voir la Palme d’or décernée à Justine Triet, la 10ème pour la France ! Mais estomaquée par son discours si injuste. Ce film n’aurait pu voir le jour sans notre modèle français de financement du cinéma, qui permet une diversité unique au monde. Ne l’oublions pas.
— Rima Abdul Malak (@RimaAbdulMalak) May 27, 2023

The Zone of Interest, an adaptation of the same novel by the late Martin Amis about a family living close to Auschwitz, won the Grand Prix, the second-highest honor, and was directed by British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.

Koji Yakusho of Japan won the best actor prize for his portrayal of a middle-aged toilet cleaner in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, and Merve Dizdar of Turkey won the title of best actress for her work in About Dry Grasses. The love story Pot-au-Feu, starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel and set in a 19th-century French château, was directed by Vietnamese-French filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, and received best director.

Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Isabella Rossellini, and Sean Penn were among the Hollywood heavyweights who appeared at the festival, one of the biggest in recent years for star names on the red carpet.

Before his newest movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was shown, Harrison Ford also went to get an honorary Palme d’Or. The 80-year-old American actor expressed his “deeply moved and humbled” gratitude for receiving the honor.

The Palme d’Or, first presented in 1955 by the festival’s organizing committee, is the highest accolade at the event. Triet defeated 21 other movies in the battle for honor, defeating stiff opposition from brand-new films from renowned directors like Wes Anderson and Ken Loach.