CANNES, France — American director Terrence Malick’s expansive drama “The Tree of Life” won the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, while Kirsten Dunst took the best-actress prize for the apocalyptic saga “Melancholia.”
The Palme d’Or prize was accepted Sunday by two “Tree of Life” producers, Dede Gardner and Bill Pohlad, for the notoriously press-shy Malick, who has skipped all public events at the glamorous Cannes festival. Malick is “a very shy guy,” Pohlad said after the awards ceremony. “He just very sincerely wants the work to speak for itself.”
“The Tree of Life,” which opens Friday in the United States, stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain in a far-flung story of family life. Dunst won for her role in “Melancholia,” whose director, Denmark’s Lars von Trier, was banned from the festival after sympathetic remarks for Adolf Hitler at a movie news conference. Another Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn, won the directing award for “Drive,” his action thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt driver caught up in a heist gone wrong.
List of Cannes Film Festival prize winners
Awards presented at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, chosen by a jury headed by U.S. actor Robert De Niro.:
- Palme d’Or (Golden Palm): “The Tree of Life” by Terrence Malick (United States)
- Grand Prize: Shared between “The Kid with the Bike” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium) and “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
- Jury Prize: “Poliss” by Maiwenn (France)
- Best Director: Nicolas Winding Refn for “Drive” (Denmark)
- Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist” (France)
- Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia” (film from Denmark, actress from United States)
- Best Screenplay: Joseph Cedar, “Footnote” (Israel)
- Camera d’Or (first-time director): “Las Acacias” by Pablo Giorgelli (Argentina)
- Best short film: “Country” by Maryna Vroda (Ukraine)
