Ruben Östlund’s The Square wins the Palme d’Or: complete Cannes 2017 awards and comment

So Ruben Östlund’s The Square, a black comedy about rich people’s problems, wins the Palme d’Or?

It’s true, but my tone is a deliberate miscue. Since I wanted Lynne Ramsay’s impressionistic thriller You Were Never Really Here to win, I could be snarky about the likelihood of The Square appealing to a well-heeled jury – but that would be very churlish. Pedro Almodóvar and his colleagues have done a pretty steady job of rewarding the right films. After all, Ramsay’s film came away with the Best Actor prize for Joaquin Phoenix and a shared Best Screenplay prize split with Yorgos Lanthimos’s beautifully made Greek tragedy bore The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

The Square, which sees its Art Curator protagonist fall down a rabbit hole of bizarre consequences after he seeks revenge for a mugging, was unquestionably the most idea-packed film in a below-average selection, so the win is deserved (though our reviewer would certainly demur). It was heartening, too, to see Robin Campillo’s 1990s ACT UP tribute 120 Beats per Minute (BPM) win the Grand Prix with such an emotionally powerful political testament.

I found Fatih Akin’s terrorist bomb aftermath drama In the Fade crude in ways that if explained would spoil its plot, but Diane Kruger (Best Actress) was at full intensity throughout. Whether she was better than, say, Maryana Spivak as the steely divorcee in Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless or Nicole Kidman as the cursed wife in Sacred Deer didn’t matter because Loveless, my second favourite film, won the (third-place) Jury Prize, and Kidman was awarded a special Cannes 70th Anniversary prize – which was apt given that she was in four projects shown during the festival.

Sofia Coppola’s Best Director win for her remake of The Beguiled, a film that was more popular with women critics than men, came as a small but welcome surprise. The Camera d’Or jury also got it right by giving that first-feature prize to Léonor Serraille’s Montparnasse Bienvenue (Jeune Femme), easily the most promising film in the Un Certain Regard section this year. With three women directors thus rewarded (though no mention for Valeska Grisebach’s much admired Western in Un Certain Regard), Cannes could take another load off its back this year. And, after last year’s Toni Erdmann snub debacle (discreetly compensated for by Maren Ade’s seat on the jury) we can be grateful that we weren’t critics on the verge of a nervous breakdown this year… except, perhaps, for those flying home by British Airways.

Jury: Pédro Almodóvar, director-writer-producer (president); Maren Ade, director-writer-producer; Jessica Chastain, actor-producer; Fan Bingbing, actor-producer; Agnès Jaoui, actor-writer-director; Park Chan-wook, director-writer-producer; Will Smith, actor-producer-musician; Paolo Sorrentino, writer-director; Gabriel Yared, composer.

The Square (Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark) by Ruben Östlund

• The Square review: a lofty, laboured lecture on inequality

Nicole Kidman (for The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Top of the Lake: China Girl)

120 Beats per Minute (BPM) (France) by Robin Campillo

• 120 Beats per Minute (BPM) review: queer lives honoured

Sophia Coppola for The Beguiled (USA)

• The Beguiled review: Sofia Coppola gives her women shelter from the war

Joaquin Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here (UK) by Lynne Ramsay

• You Were Never Really Here review: Joaquin Phoenix storms Lynne Ramsay’s kidnap thriller

Diane Kruger for In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts, Germany) by Fatih Akin

Loveless (Russia/France/Belgium/Germany) by Andrey Zvyagintsev

• Loveless review: Andrey Zvyagintsev finds resonances in a Russian family falling apart

(tie)

Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Ireland/UK)

Lynne Ramsay for You Were Never Really Here (UK)

Jury: Cristian Mungiu, director (president); Clotilde Hesme, actor; Barry Jenkins, writer-director; Eric Khoo, director-writer-producer; Athina Rachel Tsangari, director-writer-producer

A Gentle Night (Xiao Cheng Er Yue, China) by Qiu Yang

Katto (The Ceiling) by Teppo Airaksinen

Paul Is Here (Paul est là, Belgium) by Valentina Maurel

Animal (Heyvan, Iran) by Bahman and Bahram Ark

Two Youths Died (Deux Égarés sonts mort, France) by Tommaso Usberti

Jury: Uma Thurman, actor (president); Mohamed Diab, director; Reda Kateb, actor; Joachim Lafosse, director; Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Lerd (A Man of Integrity, Iran) by Mohammad Rasoulof

Jasmine Trinca for Fortunata (Italy) by Sergio Castellitto

Barbara (France) by Mathieu Amalric

Taylor Sheridan for Wind River (USA)

April’s Daughter (Mexico) by Michel Franco

Jury: Sandrine Kiberlain, actor/director (president); Patrick Blossier, cinematographer; Elodie Bouchez, actor; Guillaume Brac, writer-director; Thibault Carterot; Fabien Gaffez, critic and writer; Michel Merkt, producer.

Montparnasse Bienvenue (Jeune Femme) (France) by Léonor Serraille

• Montparnasse Bienvenue (Jeune Femme) review: furious moments in an unruly life

Jury: Sandrine Bonnaire, actress (president); Lucy Walker, director; Lorenzo Codelli, critic; Dror Moreh, director; Thom Powers, programmer and festival director.

Visages Villages (Faces Places, France) by Agnès Varda

• Visages Villages review: Agnès Varda and JR big up the country byways

The Rider (USA) by Chloe Zhao

A Ciambra (Italy/Brazil/USA) by Jonas Carpignano

(tie)

Let the Sunshine In (France) by Claire Denis

• Bright Sunshine In review: Juliette Binoche rings love’s changes

Lover for a Day (France) by Philippe Garrel

Back to Genoa City (France) by Benoit Grimalt

Jury: Kleber Mendonça Filho (president), Diana Bustamante Escobar, Eric Kohn, Hania Mroué, Niels Schneider.

Makala by Emmanuel Gras

Gabriel and the Mountain by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa

Los Desheredados by Laura Ferrés

Gabriel and the Mountain by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa

Ava by Léa Mysius

The Best Fireworks by Aleksandra Terpińska

Jury: Alissa Simon (USA, president), Thomas Aidan (France), Barbara Lorey de Lacharrière (France), Rodrigo Fonseca (Brazil), Vidyashankar Jois (India), Pierre Pageau (Canada), Eva Peydró (Spain), Silvana Silvestri (Italy), Mode Steinkjer (Norway).

120 Beats per Minute (BPM) (France) by Robin Campillo

Closeness (Russia) by Kantemir Balagov

The Nothing Factory (Portugal) by Pedro Pinho