There was a mix of surprise and confirmed predictions at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival this evening. The event unfurls in a mélange of pageantry, prestige and serious art with many of the winners anticipating their honors (they are told to be present but not for what) and there’s also a sense of un-scriptedness to the proceedings.

One of the best moments came when a shocked Christoph Waltz – Quentin Tarantino’s Col. Hans Landa in “Inglorious Basterds” – took the best acting award. In keeping (mercifully only somewhat) with his character, he gave an acceptance speech in French, English and German and thanked Tarantino for reviving his career.

Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” has won the Palme d’Or for best film in Cannes. The director, who now has three major Cannes prizes under his belt, warmly hugged jury president Isabelle Huppert when he mounted the stage.

The moment also marked the only time Huppert smiled (on camera at least) during the entire ceremony (as I noted in an earlier post, Huppert won her second acting Palme for Haneke’s “La Pianiste” in 2001).

Continue reading for the rest of the winners

Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” won the Grand Jury Prize. The super-cool director appeared to temporarily lose his composure when he loosely quoted from “Out of Africa” during his acceptance speech, telling the jury “From now on, if you say anything, I’ll believe you.”

Although the main actor from “A Prophet” had been hotly-tipped as a best actor laureate, the honor went instead to “Basterds’” Christoph Waltz who emotionally accepted the acting nod with a shout out to QT in saying, “You gave me my vocation back.”

Charlotte Gainsbourg earned the best actress award for her turn in Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist.”

Best directing honors went to Brillante Mendoza for “Kinatay” and the screenplay prize was awarded to Mei Feng for Lou Ye’s “Spring Fever.”

Andrea Arnold, meanwhile, has a perfect score now having won her second Jury Prize in a row with “Fish Tank.” The British director previously won the Jury Prize for “Red Road” in 2006. Korean director Park Chan Wook shared this year’s prize with Arnold for his “Thirst.”

Other highlights included Australia’s Warwick Thornton getting the Camera d’Or for his first film, “Samson & Delilah” and an ‘exceptional’ prize for 87-year-old director Alain Resnais and his “Wild Grass.”

Posted by Nancy