Blue is a winning colour

Abdellatif Kechiche is the critics' favourite.

by Richard Mowe

The Selfish Giant
The Selfish Giant
Although the major Cannes Competition prizes will not be revealed until tomorrow night (Sunday 26 May) Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is The Warmest Colour took the gong from the international critics' organisation Fipresci which could be a pointer to other prizes in store.

There is also a buzz around the performances of Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux as front-runners for a joint Cannes’ best actress prize.

Fipresci plaudits go to one outstanding film in the Cannes Competition, another in Un Certain Regard and a third in either Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week.

Fiprecci’s Un Certain Regard accolade went to Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof’s Manuscripts Don’t Burn, which was secretly shot in Iran.

Directors’ Fortnight entry Blue Ruin, from Jeremy Saulnier (Murder Party) and a revenge thriller about a homeless man’s family’s murder, also received Fipresci recognition.

In addition it was announced today that the Cannes’ Ecumenical Jury award has gone to The Past, from Iran’s Asghar Farhardi who won an Academy Award for A Separation.

Italian actress Valeria Golino’s directorial debut Miele and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Competition contender Like Father, Like Son both received commendations from the Ecumenical jury.

Yesterday French actor-director Guillaume Gallienne’s comic confessional Me Myself And Mum topped the 45th Directors’ Fortnight, scooping both its Art Cinema Award and the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers’ SACD Prize. A special mention by the SACD jury went to another comedy Serge Bozon’s Tip Top.

Me Myself And Mum, based on Gallienne's solo stage show” turns on his recreation of a childhood overshadowed by his mother who assumes, like seemingly everybody else, that he’s gay.

The third prize from the Europa Cinemas Label for best European film in Directors’ Fortnight, went to The Selfish Giant, the fiction feature debut of British director Clio Barnard, who previously made the documentary The Arbor. The new film is set on a Bradford council estate and loosely updates Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale, telling of two teenagers and a tragic friendship.

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