‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Wins Palme d’Or at 2023 Cannes Film Festival

Cannes 2023: Acting awards go to Koji Yakusho for “Perfect Days” and Merve Dizdar for “About Dry Grasses”

Anatomy of a Fall
Neon

Justine Triet’s complex drama “Anatomy of a Fall” has won the Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, a jury headed by director Ruben Ostlund announced on Saturday evening in France. Jane Fonda presented the award to Triet, who became only the third woman to win the Palme, after Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993 and Julia Ducournau for “Titane” in 2021.

The film was acquired by Neon during the festival, which makes it the fourth consecutive Palme for that company after “Parasite,” “Titane” and “The Triangle of Sadness.”

“Part thorny family story, part whodunit, part courtroom drama and part meditation on the nature of truth and fiction, Justine Triet’s ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ takes two hours of conversations and makes them both provocative and propulsive,” wrote TheWrap in its review.

The Grand Prix, which is essentially Cannes’ second-place award, was given to the chilling Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer, which many Cannes-watchers had tapped as the likely Palme winner. Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s gentle and deadpan character study “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize, the third-place award.

The best director award went to Tran Anh Hung for his rhapsodic film about love and cooking, “The Pot-au-Feu.”

The best actor award went to Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, who plays a mild-mannered man who cleans toilets in Wim Wenders’ low-key “Perfect Days.” The best actress award was won by Turkish actress Merve Dizdar for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses.”

Sakamoto Yuji won the screenplay award for “Monster,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s multi-perspective drama about young boys.

Also at the ceremony, Quentin Tarantino presented a special tribute to veteran low-budget director-producer Roger Corman, who got a lengthy standing ovation from the audience at a festival that typically does not program the kind of films he makes.

Twenty-one films competed for the Palme this year, with a record seven of them coming from female directors. Films in competition includes Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak.”

The jury was headed by “Triangle of Sadness” director Ruben Ostlund, himself a two-time Palme winner, and also included actors Paul Dano, Brie Larson and Denis Menochet and directors Julia Ducournau, Rungano Nyoni, Atiq Rahimi, Damian Szifron and Maryam Touzani.

The Camera d’Or, an award that goes to the best first feature from all sections of the festival, was awarded to “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” from Vietnamese-Singaporean director Phan Thien An. The film screened in the Directors Fortnight sidebar at Cannes.

The short film Palme d’Or went to “27,” by Flora Ana Buda.

The winners:

Palme d’Or: “Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet
Grand Prix: “The Zone of Interest,” Jonathan Glazer
Jury Prize: “Fallen Leaves,” Aki Kaurismaki
Best Director: Tran Anh Hung, “The Pot-au-Feu”
Best Actor: Koji Yakusho, “Perfect Days”
Best Actress: Merve Dizdar, “About Dry Grasses”
Best Screenplay: Sakamoto Yuji, “Monster”

Camera d’Or (best first feature): “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” Phan Thien An

Short film awards:
Short film Palme d’Or: “27,” Flora Ana Buda
Special mention: “Far”

Additional awards, previously announced:

Un Certain Regard:
Un Certain Regard Prize: “How to Have Sex,” Molly Manning Walker
Jury’s Prize: Hounds,” Kamal Lazraq
Best Director: Asmae El Moudir, “The Mother of All Lies”
New Voice Prize: “Omen,” Baloji
Ensemble Prize: “The Buriti Flower”
Freedom Prize: “Goodbye Julia,” Mohamed Kordofani

La Cinef
First Prize: “Norwegian Offspring,” Marlene Emilie Lyngstad
Second Prize: “Hole,” Hwang Hyein
Third Prize: “Moon,” Zineb Wakrim

The Golden Eye Documentary Prize: “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania, and “The Mother of All Lies,” Asmae El Moudir

Check out TheWrap’s Cannes magazine here and all of our Cannes 2023 coverage here.

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