Cannes 2023 Awards: Justine Triet’s ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Takes Palme
by Alex Billington
May 28, 2023
Winners of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d’Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The awards included many of my favorite films at the festival, though my top pick didn’t end up with the Palme. French filmmaker Justine Triet took home the top prize – her new film Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or this year, following up Ruben Ostlund’s second Palme win for The Triangle of Sadness last year. A number of other critics picks also won awards: The Zone of Interest won the Grand Prix (second place) though it really should’ve taken home the Palme instead. Aki Kaurismäki’s delightful romantic charmer Fallen Leaves won the Jury Prize. My favorite win of the night went to the Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho, who is transcendent in the poetic drama Perfect Days. All-in-all a solid amount of best of the fest winners this year. View all the Cannes 2023 awards below.
Here’s the full list of Cannes 2023 winners, with most of the key awards listed below, including Un Certain Regard. I’ll get into my own commentary after the winners. Visit the official Cannes website for more info.
Palme d’Or (Golden Palm):
Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une Chute) directed by Justine Triet
Grand Prix (Runner Up):
The Zone of Interest directed by Jonathan Glazer
Jury Prize:
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) directed by Aki Kaurismäki
Best Director:
Tran Anh Hung for The Pot-au-Feu (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)
Best Screenplay:
Yuji Sakamoto for Monster (dir. by Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Camera d’Or (First-Time Filmmaker):
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Bên trong vỏ kén vàng) directed by Pham Thien An
Best Leading Actress:
Merve Dizdar in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne)
Best Lead Actor:
Kōji Yakusho in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize:
How to Have Sex directed by Molly Manning Walker
Jury Prize:
Hounds directed by Kamal Lazraq
Best Director:
Asmae El Moudir for The Mother of All Lies
“Freedom Prize”:
Mohamed Kordofani for Goodbye Julia
“Ensemble Prize”:
The Buriti Flower directed by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
“New Voice Prize”:
Baloji Tshiani for Omen (Augure)
That’s all the big winners at Cannes this year. Congrats to all of the 2023 festival films! As for my thoughts, well, just the same as last year – I don’t know why they chose Anatomy of a Fall. It’s not the best of the fest, it’s not innovative, it’s not really that remarkable. It’s a good film, that’s for sure, but not the most profound one in the competition. My personal pick for the Palme d’Or is La Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher, which really should’ve won something anyway. I also wanted to see Wim Wender’s Perfect Days or The Pot-au-Feu winning other awards, but they still both got something. The rest of the winners are mostly satisfying, which is quite nice to see anyway – not much to complain about. I was hoping the tremendously talented German actress Sandra Hüller would win an award – but because they gave the Palme to Anatomy of a Fall, they had to give Best Actress to someone else in a different film. It instead went to the Turkish actress in Ceylan’s film, which is great because About Dry Grasses is exquisite and this should bring even more attention to it.
The 2023 jury was lead by Swedish director Ruben Östlund as President, with: Maryam Touzani, Denis Ménochet, Rungano Nyoni, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, Atiq Rahimi, Damián Szifron, Julia Ducournau. This brings us to the end of our 2023 updates, another year covering Cannes wraps up with the festival awards.
