2014 Cannes Film Fest: Always the Bridesmaid, but Now the Bride: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Wins the Palme d’Or for “Winter Sleep”

We might have changed the notion and definition of what the La Nouvelle Vague at the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Youth are picking up the torch and reinvigorating future cinema — a sentiment that was expressed by jury members Jane Campion and Nicolas Winding Refn, and the more experienced folk are doing just the same. Godard broke the traditional narrative while Xavier Dolan and Alice Rohrwacher have made cinema feel fresh again and they were awarded for it. And the best news, the one master filmmaker who was due finally picked up a prize that had seemed to favor the Dardennes (who went o for 6 in their eligible categories with Julianne Moore finally getting some due (0 for 4 at the Oscars) for her deliriously fun bit in Maps to the Stars) won the Palme for Winter Sleep. Admittedly, the jury were afraid of the three plus hour film when they first viewed the scorecard, but realized like much of the hour critics that the Turkish helmer paints engrossing portraits — no wonder it was our most anticipated film of the year. Bennett Miller had to leave lunch in Paris to pick up a worthy Directing award, Timothy Spall had to drop his maintenance work on his boat to pick up the Best Actor prize and another one of our favorite auteurs of the fest in the hard to pronounce name of Andrei Zvyaginstev picked up anohter Cannes prize — this time for Best Screenplay. Finally, having won the night before in the Un Certain Regard section, directors Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis proved that you can open the sidebar and come out on top winning the prestigious Camera d’Or prize for Party Girl. Here are the winner below — I’ll be posting the Press Conference room pics of all the winners.

Palme d’Or: Winter Sleep Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Grand Prix: The Wonders Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Prix du Jury (Jury Prize): Mommy – Director: Xavier Dolan; and Goodbye to Language Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Prix de la Mise en Scene (Best director): Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Prix du Scenario (Best screenplay): Leviathan – Writers: Andrey Zvyaginstev and Oleg Negin
Camera d’Or (best first feature): Party Girl – Directors: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis
Prix d’interpretation feminine (Best actress): Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Prix d’interpretation masculine (Best actor): Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner