Cannes Film Festival Awards

May 27, 2008 at 8:32am PST

Tags: Benicio del Toro, Cannes, Che, Clint Eastwood, Natalie Portman, Sean Penn, Steven Soderberg, The Class

The Cannes Film Festival came to a close this weekend with the French film The Class (Entre les Murs) taking top honors. It was the first time a French film has won the prestigious Palme d’Or since 1987 winner Under Satan’s Sun.

Jury president Sean Penn called The Class an “amazing, amazing film…virtually seamless. All the performances, magic. All the writing, magic. It just touched us so deeply.”

Other winners included Best Actor Benicio del Toro for his starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s Che, Catherine Deneuve and Clint Eastwood receiving honorary lifetime achievement awards (Eastwood did not attend to accept his), Atom Egoyan’s Adoration took the Ecumenical Award and the UK’s Steve McQueen (no relation) was given the Camera d’Or (the cinematography award) for his film The Hunger.

This year’s jury included Natalie Portman, French director Rachid Bouchareb, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, Iranian writer-director Marjane Satrapi, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto and French actress Jeanne Balibar.

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