Film Festivals
2015 Cannes Critics Panel Predictions: “Carol” Leads “Son of Saul” & “The Assassin” for Palme d’Or

According to our jury Cannes Critics Panel, László Nemes’ Son of Saul and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin have an outside chance of walking out of France with the Palme d’Or (three votes apiece) or at least a red ribbon, while one third of our participants see Carol landing the top honor. If those five crystal balls are correct, it would mathematically match who we declared as the best film among the nineteen offerings in this year’s In Competition selection.
As we do every year, we’ve asked our critics panel to state what their personal Palme (red) was, and asked them to play fortune teller in the how the jury will dish out the Jury Prize (bronze), Grand Prix (silver) and Palme (gold) prizes (see full grid below). Curiously, Nemes’ debut was placed in the 2nd place slot by six of our jury members and The Lobster appears to be the odds against favorite with four nods.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
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