We have just learned which film is the brand new winner of the Palme d’Or 2014 of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. An edition characterized by great authors but which has been full of great surprises, disappointments and controversies —as usually happens in this event. Rumors always arise among the press and fans about possible awards, but rumors are rumors and the jury’s decision is another story.
By the way, this year’s jury has been chaired by Ruben Östlund, controversial winner in two editions with ‘The Square’ (2017) and ‘El triángulo de la tristeza’ (‘Triangle of Sadness’, 2022). After learning about this year’s list of winners, we review 5 movies that should never have won the Palme d’Or and we record that each jury is a world and that in the end, it is as subjective as anyone’s personal opinion. Did all the award-winning films really deserve it?
‘The Mission’ (‘The Mission’, 1986)
The second British film Roland Joffe, ‘The mission’earned him his second Oscar nomination as a director and an award no less precious as the Palme d’Or in 1986. Starring robert deniro, Jeremy Irons and ray mcanallythe film was about an 18th century Peruvian missionary and achieved great international fame.
The jury chaired by Syndey Pollackdecided to reward Joffé’s film, whose main attraction was its impeccable production and -we are sure- for its masterful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. For the rest, the film did not end up being a very well directed religious melodrama and that is if we take into account that it competed against ‘Under the weight of the law’ (‘Down by law’ by Jim Jarmusch) or ‘Jo, what a night ‘ (‘After Hours’, Martin Scorsese), among others, the Palme d’Or for ‘La Misión’ sounds very funny to us.
‘Eternity and a day’ (‘Mia aioniotita kai mia mera’, 1998)
the greek Theo Angelopoulos presented in 1998, ‘Eternity and a day’a more than appropriate title for this story about a terminal poet who gave life Bruno Ganz. TO martin scoresesepresident of the jury that year, seemed to him the most award-winning film thanks to its excellent narrative style and leisurely pace so characteristic of the Greek that it matched perfectly with the story of the last days of the character.
Of course, there was talk that it was the easy option, to avoid controversy. And it is that once again, among the films that opted for the Palme d’Or, was one of the most controversial films of the time: the fascinating ‘Celebration’ (‘Festen’, 1998) by Thomas Vinterberg.
‘The son’s room’ (‘La stanza del figlio’, 2001)
In a year packed with masterpieces in the Official Section of the Cannes Film Festival as it was the 2001the jury of that year decided to reward the emotional ‘The son’s room’ of Nanni Morettiabout the mourning of a family before the sudden death of one of its young members.
A emotional and sensitive portrait of loss, but perhaps too much. There was a lot of talk about this Palme d’Or, because there were three other very powerful titles that were favorites of the press and obtained great recognition from the public and critics after their commercial release: ‘Mulholland Drive’ by David Lynch, ‘The Pianist’ (‘ The Piano Player’) by Michael Haneke or the Bosnian ‘No Man’s Land’ (‘No Man’s Land’) by Danis Tanovic, which months later would win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ (2004)
Just two years after his controversial ‘Bowling for Columbine’ won the Festival’s 55th Anniversary Award, Michael Moore He returned with another bombshell in the form of a documentary: ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. The documentary dissected the reasons for the 9/11 attack, the Bush administration and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan without leaving a puppet with a head.
Provocative, controversial and yes, somewhat manipulativewere the keys for the Jury that year to award Moore and leave out now cult films such as ‘2046’ by Wong Kar-wai or ‘Oldboy’ by Park Chan-wook.
‘The wind that shakes the barley’ (‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’, 2006)
the irish actor cillian murphy he had just become, as he says, the fashionable actor. If he had left everyone speechless the year before with ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ (‘Breakfast on Pluto’, Neil Jordan, 2005), he now returned to the fray with ‘The wind that shakes the barley’ of ken loach, one of the most internationally recognized European directors. The film, about the Irish war for independence, ended up winning the jackpot at Cannes.
Perhaps it is one of the lesser films by the British director and his recognition was quite high-profile considering his opponents were titles like ‘El labertino del fauno’ by Guillermo del Toro, ‘Volver’ by Pedro Almodóvar or ‘Babel’ by Alejandro González Iñarritu.
It is impossible to guess the decision of the jury that very rarely coincides with popular opinion and the favorites of the press —the most notorious case I have experienced was in San Sebastián in 2009, when ‘El secreto de sus ojos’, the undisputed favorite, did not win no prize- There are many factors for decision making. from individual tastes of each member until —the inevitable— favoritism and cronyism. What do you think, what has been the most unfair Palme d’Or what do you remember?
In Espinof | When the Cannes Film Festival is not fine: 3 great movies to watch in streaming that deserved to win the Palme d’Or at the time