Film News: ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes 2013

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CHICAGO – After heating up juror monocles with the steamiest three hours at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the lesbian romance “Blue is the Warmest Color” won the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2013 awards ceremony held Sunday, May 26th. The top prize was shared by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (“The Secret of the Grain”) and his two leading ladies, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Settling for the Grand Prix was Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” a music-filled portrait of a fictionalized ’60s-era folk singer played by Oscar Isaac (in a performance guaranteed to generate Oscar buzz). Amat Escalante won Best Director for his brutal Mexican crime drama, “Heli,” while the Best Screenplay award was presented to Zhangke Jia (“Still Life”) for his uncharacteristically blood-spattered Chinese thriller, “A Touch of Sin.” Hirokazu Koreeda (“Still Walking”) won the Jury Prize for his Japanese family drama, “Like Father, Like Son.” 77-year-old character actor Bruce Dern won the festival’s Best Actor award for his work in Alexander Payne’s deadpan road trip yarn, “Nebraska,” though was not present to accept the prize. “The Artist” star Bérénice Bejo appeared flustered upon winning Best Actress for “The Past,” Asghar Farhadi’s eagerly awaited follow-up to his 2011 Oscar-winner, “A Separation.” Cinematographer Antoine Heberlé won the Vulcan Award for Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Grigris.” Rounding out the winners honored onstage by the Steven Spielberg-headed jury was Byoung-Gon Moon, who won the Palme d’Or for his short film, “Safe.”

Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux star in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color.
Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux star in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color.
Photo credit: Sundance Selects

Official selections that went home empty-handed included James Gray’s period drama, “The Immigrant,” Alex van Warmerdam’s eyebrow-raiser, “Borgman,” François Ozon’s erotic coming-of-age drama, “Young & Beautiful,” Arnaud Desplechin’s actor showcase, “Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian),” Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded vampire film, “Only Lovers Left Alive,” Paolo Sorrentino’s acclaimed return to form, “The Great Beauty,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s critically reviled “Only God Forgives,” Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s French drama, “A Castle in Italy,” Takashi Miike’s tepidly received “Shield of Straw,” Roman Polanski’s stage adaptation, “Venus in Fur,” Arnaud des Pallières’s historical epic, “Michael Kohlhaas,” and Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, “Behind the Candelabra.”

For the full list of winners, visit the official Cannes Film Festival site, http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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