Palme d'Or awarded to Cristian Mungiu's Norway-set drama 'Fjord' at the 79th Cannes Film Festival

Cristian Mungiu collected the Palme d'Or on Saturday for “Fjord,” a Norway-set drama that closed the 79th Cannes Film Festival with the event’s top prize. The award was announced May 23 in Cannes at the festival’s closing ceremony, ending a 12-day run that began May 12. “Fjord” stars Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, and the win gave Mungiu his second Palme after “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” in 2007. AP reported the film centers on a Romanian family in Norway, while Variety described it as a moral drama that had divided critics during the competition. ### How rare is a second Palme d'Or for Mungiu? Variety reported on May 23 that Mungiu became the 10th filmmaker to win the Palme d'Or twice. His first came 19 years ago for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” the film that established him as one of the leading figures of the Romanian New Wave. AP also identified Saturday’s award as his second at Cannes’ top level. (apnews.com) The 2007 win matters because Cannes has historically used the Palme to elevate directors into the center of the global art-house market. Saturday’s result returned Mungiu to that group with a film that had been one of the more debated titles in competition, according to Variety. ### What is “Fjord” about? (variety.com) AP described “Fjord” as a Norway-set drama about political polarization. Variety gave a more detailed synopsis, saying the film follows a Romanian family of Evangelical Christians caught up in a child-abuse case after running into the Norwegian social system. Channel NewsAsia, citing Reuters, similarly said the story follows a Romanian IT specialist who moves his family to the Norwegian village where his wife was born. (variety.com) Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve were the film’s most prominently billed cast members in multiple awards reports published after the ceremony. Their presence gave the film a higher-profile cast than many competition titles, though the reporting on the award focused more on Mungiu and the jury’s choice than on performances. (apnews.com) ### Who picked the winner this year? The 2026 jury was headed by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, according to Variety and other Cannes winners reports. The Film Stage listed the full jury as Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé, Paul Laverty and Stellan Skarsgård alongside Park. RogerEbert.com quoted Park as saying the jury had spent two weeks discussing “films by diverse personalities alongside jurors with diverse personalities.” (variety.com) The closing ceremony at the Palais des Festivals also produced a broader spread of prizes. Deadline reported that Andreï Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” won the Grand Prix, while directing honors were split, and acting prizes were shared among four performers. ### What else came out of the Cannes awards night? Deadline and Variety both listed “Minotaur,” “Fatherland” and “The Black Ball” among the other notable prizewinners announced May 23. (variety.com) The awards lineup suggested the jury spread major honors across several competition titles rather than concentrating them behind the Palme winner alone. That characterization comes from the distribution of prizes in the official winners reports. (deadline.com) Neon was also part of the story. Variety said the distributor carried the top prize for the seventh year running, extending a streak that has made Cannes acquisitions and festival positioning central to its awards strategy. ### Where does the film go from here? The Cannes awards were announced on May 23, and the next concrete step is distribution and release planning for “Fjord.” Variety identified Neon as the distributor tied to the Palme winner, while AP’s report placed the film at the center of the festival’s final-night awards coverage. (deadline.com) Cannes’ full 2026 winners lists were published by outlets including AP, Deadline and Variety after the ceremony in Cannes. (variety.com)