The Michael Moore film, Fahrenehit 9/11, which has kicked up controversy here in the United States, has won the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Part of director Moore's acceptance speech:
I want to dedicate this to my daughter, and the other children of the world, the children of Iraq, who suffer as a result of our actions. I believe, I have this great hope, that things are going to change. I'm not alone, there are millions of Americans. I want to make sure, if there's one thing I do for the rest of the year, is make sure that those who died, that they have not died in vain. I want to make sure that happens.
This prize, perhaps the most prestigious this side of an Oscar (more prestigious in terms of "art," but not in terms of commerce) will most certainly ensure that the film will be released this summer. More about Fahrenheit 9/11 at Michael Moore.com and via Google News. Moore won a special prize in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine at Cannes.
Others prizes: Grand prize (like a runner-up prize) to Korean film Old Boy, director Park Chan-Wook; actress Maggie Cheung in Olivier Assayas' Clean; actor Yuuya Yagira in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows (Yagira wasn't able to accept because he had to go back to Japan for exams!); director Tony Gatlif for Exils; screenplay Agnes Jaoui and Jean Pierre Bacri for Comme une Image, which Jaoui directed; and special prizes to (1) Irma P. Hall in The Ladykillers and (2) the Thai film Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. See full list of prize winners here. And Gothamist on Cannes 2004.
