European Films

 

The 2008 Cannes Film Festival came to a close in the holiday town on the Côte d'Azur, with the jury headed by Sean Penn handing out the prizes for the films in competition. Laurent Cantet's Entre le murs (The Class), an incisive look at a teacher and his class, took the Palme d'Or, the top prize, this year. Other European winners include the Belgian Dardenne brothers for their screenplay of Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence); Paolo Sorrentino's Il divo, which won the Jury Prize; Matteo Garrone's Gomorra (Gomorrah), which won the Grand Jury Prize (or runner-up) and actress Catherine Deneuve (Un conte de Noël / A Christmas Tale), who was awarded, as was director Clint Eastwood (The Exchange), a special "Prize of the 61st Festival de Cannes". 

 

In the separate section Un certain regard, the feature debut of British artist Steve McQueen called Hunger won the Caméra d'Or for best first film, while a jury headed by Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin awarded the Un certain regard prize to the Kazakh film Tulpan, with further prizes for the German film Wolke 9 (Cloud 9); Japanese film Tokyo Sonata; James Toback's Tyson and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's Johnny Mad Dog.

 

Full list of winners of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Competition:

 

Palme d´Or
Entre les murs (The Class) by Laurent Cantet

Grand Jury Prize
Gomorra (Gomorrah) by Matteo Garrone 

 

Best Actress
Sandra Corveloni in Linha de Passe 

 

Best Actor
Benicio Del Toro in Che

Best Director
Üç maymun (Three Monkeys) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

 

Best Screenplay
Le Silence d Lorna (Lorna's Silence) by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne 

 

Jury Prize
Il Divo by Paolo Sorrentino 

 

Caméra d´Or
Hunger by Steven McQueen

Catherine Deneuve (Un Conte de noel / A Christmas Tale) and Clint Eastwood (The Exchange)