Cold War (2018)Shoplifters, the new film from Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, has won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The story of a petty thief who takes in a destitute young girl, it’s the latest from a master of family dramas who previously won the Jury Prize for 2013’s Like Father, like Son.
The festival’s second biggest prize, the Grand Prix, went to Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman, his powerful drama about an undercover infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan, while the Grand Jury Prize went to Lebanese director Nadine Labaki (best known for 2007’s Caramel) for her latest, Capernaum.
Paweł Pawlikowski took best director for his film Cold War, a love story set against the backdrop of 1950s Poland. Backed with National Lottery funding via the BFI Film Fund, this is Pawlikowski’s first film since 2013’s widely acclaimed Ida and marks the fifth successive year that BFI-backed films have won awards at Cannes, following Mr. Turner (2014), The Lobster (2015), I, Daniel Blake and American Honey (2016) and You Were Never Really Here (2017).
“Our congratulations to Pawel on this recognition from the Cannes jury for his breathtaking Cold War,” says Ben Roberts, Director of the BFI’s Film Fund. “We are proud to have supported Pawel, his co-writers Janusz Glowacki and Piotr Borkowski and producers Tanya Seghatchian and Ewa Puszczynska on this exemplary co-production. Gratulacje!”
Veteran French director Jean-Luc Godard took a special award for his experimental work The Image Book, with acting prizes going to Samal Yeslyamova for her turn in the Russian drama Ayka and Marcello Fonte for Dogman, a return to gangster territory from Gomorra director Matteo Garrone.
The best screenplay award was shared between Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro and Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar for Three Faces.
This year’s jury was presided over by Cate Blanchett.
