Surprise Palme d'Or Winner At Cannes

This morning (NZ time), Thai comedy-drama Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was named the surprise winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE.

Cannes jury chairman Tim Burton named it best film, beating out a line-up that included the latest works from Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.

Uncle Boonmee, Bangkok-born filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul's sixth film, is described by Hollywood publication Variety as "more readily accessible than his previous films in its dreamlike vignette structure, yet even more resistant to concrete interpretation... Critics and cinephiles will be enraptured, as will viewers adventurous enough to surrender to the film's Buddhist rhythms, mythical underpinnings and mesmeric images."

While IndieWIRE said: "over the course of the nearly two-hour excursion, the ghost of a man shows up reincarnated as an ape, and a catfish apparently performs cunnilingus on a woman in the jungle. Those moments provide the strangest diversions, but Uncle Boonmee replicates that weirdness with a melding of poetic and comic forces, yielding an experience defined by sheer ingenuity."

The win comes after South Korean director Hong Sangsoo won the prestigious Un Certain Regard prize for Hahaha on the weekend. An Asian clean sweep of the festival has taken many by surprise, with an line-up of films considered bleak in tone.

Juliette Binoche won Best Actress for her role in Iranian/French drama Certified Copy, while Javier Bardem won Best Actor in Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful.

Kiwi short film Berik, directed by Daniel Joseph Borgman, won the Canal+ Award for Best Short Film, within the Critics' Week sidebar competition.

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MAJOR CANNES WINNERS:

Palme d’Or:
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Grand Prix (runner-up): 
Des Hommes Et Des Dieux (Of God and Men), directed by Xavier Beauvois

Prix de la Mise en Scene (best director):
Mathieu Amalric for Tournee (On Tour)

Prix du Scenario (best screenplay):
Poetry by Lee Chang-dong

Camera d’Or (best first feature):
Año Bisiesto directed by Michael Rowe

Prix du Jury (jury prize):
A Screaming Man directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Best Actress:
Juliette Binoche for Certified Copy (directed by Abbas Kiarostami)

Best Actor:
Javier Bardem for Biutiful (directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu)
and Elio Germano for La Nostra Vita (directed by Daniele Luchetti)

Palme d’Or for Short Film:
Chienne d’Histoire directed by Serge Avedikian

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