A Japanese sad family tale ‘Shoplifters’ has won 2018 Cannes Film Festival top prize, the Palme d’Or.
The movie was directed by veteran Hirokazu Kore-eda who received the award on Saturday at a ceremony where the gloomy images of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment saga loom large.
Spike Lee was the runner-up Grand Prix for “BlacKkKlansman”, a searing broadside against racism with the stranger-than-fiction true story of an African-American police officer who manages to infiltrate the highest levels of the Ku Klux Klan.
The most stunning moment of the night came when Italian star Asia Argento, who has said she was raped by Weinstein at Cannes in 1997, took the microphone and vowed to fight for justice for other victims.
“This festival was his hunting ground,” said Argento, who says she was 21 when Weinstein attacked her in his hotel room.
“Even tonight sitting among you there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women. We know who you are and we are not going to allow you to get away with it any longer,” she said to cheers from the audience.
Women also won prizes as Lebanese actress-director Nadine Labaki, one of three female filmmakers among the 21 contenders, earned the third-place Jury Prize for “Capernaum” set among the poorest of the poor in Beirut and featuring a devastating performance by a 13-year-old Syrian refugee boy.
Kazakhstan’s Samal Yeslyamova nabbed the best actress for “Ayka” by director Sergey Dvortsevoy for her moving portrayal of a young jobless immigrant from post-Soviet Central Asia who abandons her baby in Moscow.
Polish Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski took the prize for best director for “Cold War”.
Italy’s Marcello Fonte won the best actor for his much-loved performance as a soft-spoken pet groomer who stands up to a heavy in Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman”.
“Three Faces” by Iran’s Jafar Pahahi, who was barred by Tehran from attending the festival, shared the best screenplay prize with Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro”.
The Belgian transgender ballerina drama “Girl” won the Camera d´Or prize for the best first film.
