Palm award ceremony in Cannes: Prize for Best Director for Leos Carax and the Filmstiftung-backed musical "Annette"

The 74th Festival de Cannes has just wrapped its Palme d’Or award ceremony. The Palme d’Or for Best Film went to the fantasy drama "Titane" by Julia Ducournau. Leos Carax, the director of the Filmstiftung-backed musical "Annette", was awarded the prize for Best Director. The gala award ceremony with the decisions of the jury chaired by president Spike Lee was held on Saturday evening at the Grand Théatre Lumière. Awards had been previously handed out to two Filmstiftung-backed productions, "Prayers for the Stolen" (Un Certain Regard) and the "Baumi" project "Feathers" (Semaine de la Critique).

"The 74th Cannes Film Festival comes to an end with a great Palm award ceremony and has impressively shown over the past 12 days that cinema is back! Congratulations to Leos Carax on winning the prize for best director for his visually stunning and brilliantly cast film musical, which was a great hit with the audience at the Grand Thêatre Lumière at the festival’s opening. Congratulations to the German co-producer Fabian Gasmia, but congratulations are also due to the Match Factory co-production "Prayers for the Stolen" and to "Feathers", the first Baumi Award project," says Petra Müller, CEO of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

Prize for Best Director "Annette" / Competition
Leos Carax's musical opened the Festival de Cannes on 6 July. Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg played the leads. Germany’s Detailfilm produced together with France’s CG Cinéma, Belgium’s Wrong Men and Scope Pictures. The film was also shot in North Rhine-Westphalia at such locations as Vogelsang, Cologne, Münster, Mönchengladbach as well as Düsseldorf Airport. The Filmstiftung NRW backed the production with €500,000.

Special Mention for "Prayers for the Stolen" / Un Certain Regard
The jury chaired by Andrea Arnold had already announced its awards for the Un Certain Regard sidebar on Friday evening. A Special Mention went to "Prayers for the Stolen", the first feature film by the documentary director and screenwriter Tatiana Huezo (production: Match Factory Productions and others). The Filmstiftung NRW supported the film with €50,000.

Nespresso Grand Prize for "Feathers" / Semaine de la Critique
Earlier in the week, "Feathers" by Omar El Zohairy had been awarded the Semaine de la Critique’s Nespresso Grand Prize by the jury chaired by Cristian Mungiu. The Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy had already received the Baumi Script Development Award for "Feathers" in 2016. That award was launched by the Filmstiftung NRW with the Baumgartner family and Pandora Film to support the independent further development of exceptional, international cinematic stories.

NRW with five funded films in Cannes
A total of five Filmstiftung-backed productions were invited to screen at the festival on the Croisette: apart from the award-winning opening film "Annette" by Leos Carax and the other two prize-winning productions, the Competition also featured the international co-production "Lingui – The Sacred Bonds" by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and the production "Onoda – 10 000 Nights in the Jungle" by Arthur Harari opened the Un Certain Regard sidebar. "Evolution" by Kornél Mundruczó premiered in the Cannes Premieres section.

The Film- und Medienstiftung presented the film region of NRW during the festival at the German Pavilion, the joint stand of Focus Germany and German Films located in the Marché du Film.