27/05/2026

LYFE WEDNESDAY | MAY 27, 2026 25 Norwegian drama wins top prize at French film fest

R OMANIAN director Cristian Mungiu won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or top prize for the second time with his Norwegian-set drama that explores clashing cultures, Fjord . This year’s jury president South Korean director Park Chan-wook praised the film for helping shed light on understanding different views “in an artistically magnificent manner.” Celebrities including Geena Davis, who was featured on this year’s festival poster in a shot from 1991’s Thelma & Louise , as well as Tilda Swinton and Gael Garcia Bernal appeared on stage to introduce the prizes in a ceremony that was largely free of politics and full of praise for cinema. Fjord tackles conservative-progressive divide Winning an award at Cannes typically transforms careers and serves as a launch pad for the Oscars, with Palme d’Or winners often carrying strong awards season momentum. o Movie receives praise for shedding light on differing perspectives

John Travolta unsure he will direct again after Cannes debut JOHN Travolta, fresh from his directorial debut at the recent Cannes Film Festival, told Reuters he cannot imagine stepping behind the camera again unless he felt a deep passion for its subject matter. “When people say, ‘Would you direct again?’ – I have to be passionate because it’s all-consuming, so you have to love it that much,” said the screen legend, admitting making Propeller One-Way Night Coach was at times overwhelming. However, because of its deeply personal nature – about a young aviation fan who takes a fateful flight to Los Angeles in the golden age of flying in the 1950s and 1960s – he could handle it, he said. “It was me being overwhelmed with the things I love and my family and my friends,” Travolta, an experienced pilot, said at the festival. Travolta cast several of his relatives, including his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, who said watching her experienced family members work on set “felt like a master class”. Travolta produced, financed, directed, narrated and wrote the film based on a book he published some three decades ago. The star of hits such as Pulp Fiction and Grease was surprised with an honourary Palme d’Or prize ahead of the premiere, becoming visibly emotional as he accepted the award that he said was more important to him than an Oscar. Propeller , which was shown outside the competition section, will be released on Apple TV on May 29. Critics praised the film with an hour-long run time as endearing if a bit odd, with The Guardian ’s critic calling it “a rather charmingly quirky and distinctively peculiar novella-sized bedtime story”. Travolta is known for starring in hits such as Pulp Fiction and Grease . – IMDBPIC

Mungiu poses with his coveted Palme d’Or prize. – REUTERSPIC

Okamoto, wiped away tears as they took to the stage to share the best actress award. Valentin Campagne and newcomer Emmanuel Macchia also jointly received the best actor prize for their roles as World War I soldiers who fall in love in Belgian entry Coward . “I truly hope that this film will enable young people to be able to learn to love themselves,” said Macchia, who was scouted by director Lukas Dhont at a Belgian agricultural school. The best director prize was shared between Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski for his Thomas Mann drama Fatherland and the Spanish duo known as Los Javis, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, for the Spanish Civil War epic The Black Ball . The jury prize went to The Dreamed Adventure , a drama about an archaeological dig in Bulgaria, by German film director Valeska Grisebach. Honourary award for Barbra Streisand Famed US singer and actor Barbra Streisand was given an honorary Palme d’Or in absentia, after she could not attend the ceremony due to a knee injury, with French screen icon Isabelle Huppert accepting the award on Streisand’s behalf. Streisand, the 84-year-old star of movies including Yentl and Funny Girl , praised cinema’s ability to unite people, in a video message accepting the award. The 79th iteration of the festival officially kicked off on May 12 with the French romantic comedy The Electric Kiss .

Fjord stars Sebastian Stan, who made his name in the Captain America trilogy, as a Romanian IT specialist who decides to move his family of seven to the Norwegian village where his wife, played by Sentimental Value standout Renate Reinsve, was born. Cultural differences on child-rearing take an extreme turn when child-protection services become involved and the divisions reflect a bigger battle between conservative and progressive values. Mungiu, who joins the small club of directors with two Palme d’Or prizes after winning in 2007 with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days said his film was a plea for tolerance, inclusion and empathy. “You need to double-check your beliefs every now and then and make sure that if somebody doesn’t share the same views as you do, it doesn’t mean that he’s right or that you’re right,” he told Reuters after the ceremony. Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who has lived in exile in France since a life-threatening case of Covid-19 during the pandemic, used his speech while accepting the second-place Grand Prix for Minotaur to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. “I simply couldn’t not say it,” he said, referring to the prominence of Cannes as a platform. Shared prizes The female leads of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s touching elder-care drama All of a Sudden , France’s Virginie Efira and Japan’s Tao

Fjord tells the story of a family moving to a remote Norwegian town before getting embroiled in cultural differences. – IMDBPIC

Parasite director Bong says making animated film to ‘surpass’ Miyazaki

SOUTH Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho – who won three Oscars and the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Parasite – is making his first animated film. Ally is the story of a clever piglet-like squid living in the depths of the Pacific Ocean and shows how “encounters between humans and the creatures of the deep can reshape both worlds”, according to its producers. The acclaimed director told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival he hopes to try to match Japanese

in 2017. He admitted his fans “might be surprised that it’s an animation”. “But once they actually see the film” next year, “it’ll be quite familiar to them and they might be happy to see my signatures.” Bong, 56, has been working on and off on the movie for nearly seven years and released the first images of the family feature last month. It is expected to be completed in the first half of 2027 and released later in the year. – AFP

animation master Hayao Miyazaki and George Miller of Babe fame. “I’ve always wanted to create an awesome action sequence that can surpass the great ones created by George Miller or Miyazaki and I felt this film was my chance to practise that ambition,” he told the film industry bible Variety at the Cannes Film Festival. Bong, who won a cult following for films such as the sci-fi Snowpiercer , has already made a creature feature Okja , starring Paul Dano and Tilda Swinton

Bong is an Oscar and Palme d’Or winner. – AFPPIC