Red carpet wrap

The 2010 Cannes Film Festival ended with a fair share of surprises at the awards ceremony.

The 2010 Cannes Film Festival ended with a fair share of surprises at the awards ceremony. The difficult to follow, Thai film Uncle Boonmee was an unexpected winner of the Palme d’Or, which rarely goes to Asian films. The 39-year-old director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who won the Best Picture award said winning felt “surreal”.

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Surprisingly, veteran British director Mike Leigh went home empty-handed, despite the praise he got for Another Year, as did fellow Briton Ken Loach who directed the applauded Iraq war drama Route Irish.

The shared best actor award was an unusual twist, though both Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and Elio Germano (La Nostra Vita) had been firm favourites in this category.

Juliette Binoche’s turn as an unhappy art dealer in Certified Copy received much critical acclaim so a best actress win came as no surprise. During her speech, Binoche called on Iranian authorities to release the jailed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who had been invited to join this year’s jury.

Cannes’ Camera d’Or for best debut feature film went to Australian-born director Michael Rowe for his romance Ano Bisiesto.
-IANS and AFP