Ruben Östlund’s Triangle Of Sadness has won the Palme D’Or 2022!

Ruben Östlund’s Triangle Of Sadness has won the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Swedish director’s second triumph, after winning with The Square in 2007. An equally provocative social satire, this is an energetic, wacky examination of class, gender norms and culture, as well as an attack on the social power of beauty and wealth. It follows two fashion models, who explore their role in each other’s lives. The title refers to the Botox-ready space between the eyebrows on fashion models. It is an impressive achievement, superbly edited by its maker into a whole that is almost as satisfactory as its parts. And its naivety is in certain ways its strength.

The Grand Prix went jointly to Lukas Dhont’s Close, an intimate, quietly devastating study of childhood friendship between two boys in rural Belgium; and Claire Denis’ Stars At Noon, about an American woman stranded in Central America during the 1984 Nicaraguan Revolution.

The FIPRESCI Critics’ Award went to Saeed Roustaee’s Leila’s Brother, a gripping family drama about gender and succession in Iran. The story dives into the dynamics of a poor and honest family struggling to keep their heads above water. The narrative is carefully paced, the central performances magnificent, subtle, and convincing. An emotional tour-de-force.

Best Actress went to Zar Amir Ebrahimi Amir for her splendid performance in Holy Spiders by Iranian director Ali Abassi. Set in the holy city of Mashhad, the film is based on the true story of Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who targeted sex workers. A movie that talks about sex, women, and violence, strongly sympathetic to victims of misogynistic violence; it shows a very dark face of society.

Best Actor went to Song Kang-ho who leads the story of compassion and crime in Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Broker. Kore-eda again picks on themes of unconventional families, parenthood, and poverty. The pace is slow, and not above a certain ponderousness, but the visuals are so beautiful and its authenticity so thorough that one remains hooked from start to finish. I don't think anyone could leave this wonderful film without feeling more hopeful about the possibilities of the world around them.

Asia also won with Korean director Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave, who walked away with Best Director. A witty, highly imaginative piece of filmmaking by a director now largely regarded as an efficient craftsman.

Jury Prize ex-aequo winners were Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO and Belgian directors Charlotte Vandermeersch & Felix Van Groningen’s Otto Montagne.

In Skolimowski’s EO the protagonist is a donkey, who gets separated from a loving owner and cast into an unforgiving world. A funny, sad, cruel film, both crystalline and puzzling. Otto Montagne is about two friends whose lives are inextricably linked to the Alpine village. A melancholic movie, deeply intelligent and subtly moving.

A Special Prize to mark the 75th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival went to Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s Tori and Lokita. A social-realist drama about two immigrant kids, living on their own in an unnamed city in Belgium. A spectacular statement about what’s happening on the distressed opposite end of the economic spectrum. It is a story, talking about the age of economic injustice. For these are films that tell the truth about the contemporary world not as documentation, but through the conjured illumination of poetry. The sadness here is not inevitable; it is a consequence of a social structure, a political pathos. Pity that the international jury, entirely composed of filmmakers and actors who should have known better, seemed not to recognise this film’s outstanding achievement. The best movie in this year’s festival in my opinion.