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CANNES 2010

Thai Film 'Uncle Boonmee' Wins the Cannes 2010 Palme d'Or

by Alex Billington
May 23, 2010
Source: indieWIRE

Yep, that funky "Ghost Monkey" with red eyes seen above was the winner of the Palme d'Or this year. Well, sort of at least, as the very trippy Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the coveted Golden Palm at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. The awards were announced tonight and we have the full list below. The jury this year was led by Tim Burton and included Kate Beckinsale, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alberto Barbera, Emmanuel Carrere, Benicio Del Toro, Victor Erice, Alexandre Desplat & Shekhar Kapur. I really wanted Iñárritu's Biutiful to win, but instead the one film that I walked out of is the one that won.

Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or (Golden Palm):
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Grand Prix (Runner Up):
Of Gods and Men directed by Xavier Beauvois

Special Jury Prize:
A Screaming Man directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Best Director:
Mathieu Amalric for Tournée (On Tour)

Best Screenplay:
Lee Chang-dong for Poetry

Camera d'Or (First-Time Filmmaker):
Año Bisiesto (Leap Year) directed by Michael Rowe

Best Leading Actor (Tie):
Javier Bardem in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful
Elio Germano in Daniele Luchetti's La Nostra Vita

Best Leading Actress:
Juliette Binoche in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard Prize:
Hahaha directed by Hong Sang-soo

Jury Prize:
Octubre directed by Daniel Vega & Diego Vega

Special Jury Prize:
Actresses Adela Sanzhez, Eva Bianco & Victoria Rapos from Ivan Fund & Santiago Losa's Los Labios

Congratulations to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, or Thai Joe as he's known, on the Palme d'Or. And congrats to Javier Bardem as well as all of this year's winners. Although I'm not a fan of the winners this year (except for Biutiful), they still deserve all the acclaim they're getting, so I hope you check out a few of these. Head to this link to read all of our coverage of the Cannes Film Festival this year. And see you next year! Au revoir!

Filed under Awards, Cannes 10, Opinions

From around the web:

Prestron

Wait wait. You walked out of this movie? Was this a casual action? Did you just walk out and have nothing else to say?
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

I stayed to watch an hour of Uncle Boonmee, but then left at that point because I was so bored, and felt my time could've been spent elsewhere. Since I didn't finish it, I didn't think it would be right to review or talk about it any further, but suffice it to say I didn't really care for that film at all. :/
Prestron

I suppose I understand. It sounds very rude to walk out, but I've never been watching films when the time and selection was at such a premium. Being that I live in Salt Lake City I've been able to attend several Sundance screenings. Can't say I've enjoyed all of them though.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Well, that's kind of my point... I RARELY walk out of films, that's first time I've done it in years, I think. I mention it because... well, it's the first film I've walked out of in a long time, and yet it wins the Palme d'Or? Something seems off.
DdoubleRS

I walked out of Sideways because I thought it was so boring and then it won a bunch of awards. I guess its all about your taste in movies I guess.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2408/blackbabyjesus.gif Crapola

That's right, as DdoubleRS says it all comes down to taste. I love Sideways, it's a great movie. Surely there would be only maybe 20 minutes or so left on that film though if you'd been in it for around an hour? the runtime is 114 mins. Even with films I hate, if I've taken the time to watch that much I want to see it through to the finish! Hope you had a good time anyway and look forward to hearing more bits and pieces about your adventure.
http://www.filmetari.com Floryan

Alex, I walked out too and I made a bad review about it on my movie blog. I understand that the jury choose this movie because it is so different compared to the others. It was their only explication in the press conference. And for @Preston. Man, when I walked out it was at the half of the movie and 50 people already had walked out. Even if i were in the middle of the row the people standing made me room to walk out and a few even came after me. Another Year or Hors la Roi deserved better....
http://twitter.com/pannalogic Panna

What did you do with your newly aquired time?
http://promovieblogger.com/ ProMovieBlogger

Hay Alex, you MISSED a few of the WINNERS. http://film-book.com/cannes-film-festival-2010-ecumenical-jury-prize-winner/ http://film-book.com/cannes-film-festival-2010-fipresci-prize-winner/ A COMPLETE LIST of this years' Cannes winners: http://film-book.com/cannes-film-festival-2010-winners/
ed

Why walk out? What did that hour add that was greater than seeing what happened in this film? Oh well. Your loss. It is s brilliant movie, perhaps not best seen by those who want to best over the head with meaning but for anyone with some intelligence and the willingness to watch s move, to e enjoy the time aspect of cinema it is s masterwork.I can only surmise the off part is your taste. What did you hate so about uncle boonmee. Perhaps you should learn a little patience and the experience of film, but as an innartu fan, well, perhaps not.
http://mrugli.blogspot.com/ mr ugli

Personally, I loved this film. However, it was by no means an easy watch. Normally I would rinse people that walk out of films like this, but I can understad it with this film. It isn't for everybody. I thought it was a beautiful film. It really captured the space and time it existed in, and you truly felt you were there with the characters. I also felt there was a lot of humour running through it which seemed to fly over the heads of everybody else I was watching it with. My girlfriend fell alseep twice during this film, but she was very polite about it afterwards. Another guy stormed out muttering expletives to the screen. I guess he didn't have patience for it. But despite its challenging nature, it is by no means a bad film.