Cannes to hold closing ceremony May 23

Festival de Cannes said its 79th edition will end on Saturday, May 23, with the closing ceremony in Cannes and the main competition awards handed out by the jury led by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. The festival said 22 films are in contention for the Palme d’Or and the other top prizes. French actor Eye Haïdara will host the ceremony after also presenting the opening ceremony on May 12. Ahead of the event, Reuters and the Associated Press described the Palme race as unusually open, with no clear front-runner emerging from this year’s lineup. ### Who is deciding the prizes on Saturday? Park Chan-wook is chairing the feature-film jury that will choose the winners from the 22 titles in Competition, the festival said. AP described the panel as a nine-member jury, giving it broad latitude in a year without an obvious consensus favorite. (festival-cannes.com) Eye Haïdara will host the closing ceremony, according to the festival’s May 22 press release. The same release said she also presented the opening ceremony on May 12. ### Which awards are being handed out? The festival said the prizes to be presented include the Palme d’Or, Grand Prix, Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor. (festival-cannes.com) Tilda Swinton is set to present the Palme d’Or, while Geena Davis, Xavier Dolan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Gael García Bernal, Nadine Labaki and Zoe Saldaña are among the presenters for the ceremony. Festival de Cannes also said the closing ceremony will be broadcast live and exclusively on France 2, and that the winners from the 79th edition will be published online on Saturday, May 23. ### Which films are in the running for the Palme d’Or? The 22-film competition slate includes Pedro Almodóvar’s “Amarga Navidad,” Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep In The Box,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love” and Andrei Zviaguintsev’s “Minotaur,” according to the festival’s official list. (festival-cannes.com) The lineup also includes films by Lukas Dhont, Hamaguchi Ryusuke, Arthur Harari, Léa Mysius and Na Hong-jin. (festival-cannes.com) The festival officially opened on May 12 with the French romantic comedy “The Electric Kiss,” Reuters reported. The Cannes website separately identified Pierre Salvadori’s film as the opening title of the 79th edition. ### Why does the Palme race look so open this year? Reuters reported on May 23 that no clear Palme d’Or front-runner had emerged from what it called a strong field of arthouse directors, after a festival edition that leaned into independent cinema with Hollywood studios largely absent. (festival-cannes.com) The Associated Press said “the race may be wide open” as the festival closed, adding that many selections had not generated the kind of broad critical consensus Cannes often produces. (whbl.com) That assessment was AP’s characterization of the field, not a festival statement. ### Where will viewers and readers see the results? (whbl.com) Festival de Cannes said on its awards page that the winners of the 79th edition would be available online on Saturday, May 23, after the ceremony. The same page said the closing event would air live on France 2. Saturday’s next milestone is the release of the full winners list from the Park Chan-wook-led jury, including the Palme d’Or, on the festival’s official awards and press pages. (usnews.com) (festival-cannes.com)