Cannes Film Festival awards Palme d’Or to Cristian Mungiu

The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival concluded with Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu winning the Palme d’Or for his film ‘Fjord.’ This marks Mungiu’s second time receiving the top prize. The Grand Prix was awarded to Andrey Zvyagintsev for the Russian political thriller ‘Minotaur.’

Other notable awards included a tie for best director between Pawel Pawlikowski for ‘Fatherland’ and the duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for ‘The Black Ball.’ The festival jury was presided over by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, alongside members such as Demi Moore and Chloé Zhao.

In a separate cultural development, Park Chan-wook is presenting his first European photography exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles in France. Titled ‘Par un matin calme,’ the exhibition showcases a more spontaneous side of the director’s work, which he describes as an ‘antidote’ to the controlled environment of film production.