CANNES 2018

Cannes 2018 Awards: Hirokazu Koreeda's 'Shoplifters' Wins Palme d'Or

by Alex Billington
May 19, 2018
Source: Cannes

Congrats Kore-eda! Winners of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d'Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The big winner this year is beloved Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose new film Shoplifters won the Palme out of 21 films in competition. One of my other favorite films of the festival, Nadine Labaki's powerful drama Capharnaüm, won the Jury Prize (essentially third prize) which is a relief at least. Spike Lee's superb BlacKkKlansman won the second prize Grand Prix award. All three of these top winners are very strong, and they're excellent films worthy of the attention. I wanted Capharnaüm to win the Palme, but at least many of the best films from the fest did earn accolades in other categories (except for Burning). All of the winners are listed below.

Here's the full list of Cannes 2018 winners, with most of the key awards listed below, including Un Certain Regard. I'll get into my own commentary after the winners. Head to the official Cannes website for more.

Palme d'Or (Golden Palm):
Shoplifters directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Grand Prix (Runner Up):
BlacKkKlansman directed by Spike Lee

Jury Prize:
Capharnaüm directed by Nadine Labaki

Best Director:
Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War

Best Screenplay:
Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice)
(tied with) Jafar Panahi & Nader Saeivar for Three Faces (Se Rokh)

Camera d'Or (First-Time Filmmaker):
Girl directed by Lukas Dhont

Best Lead Actor:
Marcello Fonte in Matteo Garrone's Dogman

Best Leading Actress:
Samal Yeslyamova in Sergei Dvortsevoy's Ayka

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard Prize:
Border (Gräns) directed by Ali Abbasi

Special Jury Prize:
The Dead and the Others (Chuva E Cantoria Na Aldeia Dos Mortos) directed by Renée Nader Messora & João Salaviza

Best Directing Prize:
Sergei Loznitsa for Donbass

Best Screenplay Prize:
Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi for Sofia

Best Performance Prize:
Victor Polster for Girl directed by Lukas Dhont

That's the full list for this year. Congrats to all of the 2018 winners! This is an impressive year and intriguing one, with the jury picking some controversial yet satisfying films for the top prizes. I am not the biggest fan of Shoplifters, but I'm glad Kore-eda won, and perhaps he deserves this for all of his films because he has made plenty of them. Cate Blanchett explained that they went in to see these films with an open mind: "The world is a very political place, and the media very quickly turns human issues into political issues. As artists working in cinema, we made a pact with one another that we would look at each film as a work of art in and of itself." Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman is a very potent, outspoken film, but I don't think it's one of the best of the festival. Dogman, Cold War, Girl, and Happy as Lazzaro are some of the best films and I'm glad they were acknowledged in some way by the jury. Keep an eye out for all these Cannes films at your local cinema.

This year's jury was lead by actress Cate Blanchett with: Chang Chen, Ava DuVernay, Robert Guédiguian, Khadja Nin, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve, and Andrey Zvyagintsev. This is the beginning of the end of our 2018 coverage, another year at the Cannes Film Festival wraps up with the Palme awards.

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