Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon"

The prizes are starting to roll in for the various Cannes sections while the Croisette sits on tenterhooks in anticipation of tonight’s big awards.

I keep getting text messages from folks with something at stake asking if I know anything about tonight’s potential Palme d’Or outcome. I don’t, at least not anymore than the general consensus that Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” and Michael Haneke’s “White Ribbon” are strong contenders. Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” could be poised for a recompense as could 87-year-old director Alain Resnais‘ “Wild Grass.”

Just now, I received a text message telling me that Lou Ye’s “Spring Fever” is now a frontrunner. The controversial director was banned from filming in China after his last film, “Summer Palace,” was shown in competition in 2006 without the approval of the Chinese censors. He made “Spring Fever” completely under the radar in the country and is now said to be leaving China for good.

There are always surprises at the final awards ceremony; it’s a given. This year, however, there could be more than usual. Scuttlebutt around town has been that jury president Isabelle Huppert - best known to non-arthouse/non-foreign audiences for a role in David O. Russell’s “I Heart Huckabees” - is a taskmaster of a leader.

Reportedly, jury member James Gray - director of such films as “Two Lovers” and “The Yards” - has been locking horns with Huppert in their closed-door deliberations.

Although jury voting by definition is supposed to be a democratic affair, the Cannes jury president sits in a powerful position with an opinion that generally wins out in cases of conflict.

Indeed, in Cannes, juries are known as belonging to the president. Rather than refer to the panel as, say, “The 2004 jury,” you would call it “Quentin Tarantino’s jury.”

Should Haneke’s “White Ribbon” - a “meticulously constructed, precisely modulated tapestry of malice and intrigue,”  according to Screen - win a big prize, it will be interesting to hear the post-game comments. Huppert won her second acting Palme d’Or in 2001 for Haneke’s “La Pianiste.”

Posted by Nancy