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The 2019 Cannes Film Festival came to a close after 11 days on Sunday, with Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite taking home the Festival’s most prestigious prize, the Palme d’Or. The film follows a lower-class family that schemes to take over a wealthy household. This was the first time that the Palme d’Or has been awarded to a Korean director. Previous winners of the Palme d’Or include Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
The Grand Prix was awarded to Atlantics by Mati Diop, making Diop the first black woman to be awarded the prize in 72 years.
Diop has previously said she was a “little sad” to make history as the first black woman to have a film screened at the Festival. “It's pretty late and it's incredible that it is still relevant,” she said of the accolade. “My first feeling to be the first black female director was a little sadness that this only happened today in 2019. I knew it as I obviously don't know any black women who came here before. I knew it but it's always a reminder that so much work needs to be done still."
The Cannes Film Festival showcases some of the biggest upcoming films of the year, and 2019 was no different, with Rocketman receiving its worldwide premiere, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood receiving a major preview. The Guardian gave the latter film a full five stars, with Peter Bradshaw writing “With Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt playing a TV actor and stuntman who cross paths with the Manson cult, Tarantino has created outrageous, disorientating entertainment”.
Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, was hailed as one of the highlights of the festival. Joseph Walsh writes in Time Out “It leaves you dazed, terrified and elated, and it signals Eggers as one of the most exciting directors working today”, awarding the film five stars.
Not all releases were greeted warmly however, with Jim Jarmusch’s dry Zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die labelled a disappointment by the world’s press.
Read more about Cannes 2019 here.