No clear favourites in Palme d’Or race at Cannes Film Festival this year

Cannes:  A year after a remarkable Palme d'Or run that saw American film 'Anora' emerging winner and capping the victory later with a Best Picture Oscar award, there is no clear favourite for the Cannes Film Festival's top prize this year, reports Dynamite News correspondent.

Celebrated French actor Juliette Binoche-headed competition jury, which also includes Mumbai-born filmmaker Payal Kapadia, will present the awards in the Cannes festival's main competition category tonight.

Twenty-two films representing the best of world cinema this year are vying for the Palme d'Or. There is no Indian film in the main competition this year, following the Grand Prix win of Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light' in 2024.

'All We Imagine As Light' was the first Indian film to compete for the Palme d'Or after Malayalam filmmaker Shaji N Karun's 'Swaham' (My Own) in 1994.

The films in contention for the Cannes festival top prize this year include 'It Was Just An Accident' (Un Simple Accident), acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi's new feature film set in Tehran, American director Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme', about a business family's fluctuating fortunes in the 1950s, and French filmmaker Julia Ducournau's 'Alpha'.

Ducournau had won the Palme d'Or in 2021 for 'Titane'.

Among other films in the competition section are Scottish director Lynne Ramsey's 'Die My Love' starring Oscar-winning American actor Jennifer Lawrence about a couple deciding to raise a family in a peaceful setting near a forest, and American director Richard Linklater's new feature film, 'New Wave' (Nouvelle Vague), the revisiting of the making of legendary New Wave French director Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film, 'Breathless', made in 1960.

The discerning international audience at the Cannes Film Festival this year have been unable to pin a clear favourite for the Palme d'Or.

The titles talked about though for the top prize include 'Sirat' by French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, Panah's 'It Was Just An Accident', 'Sound of Falling' by German director Mascha Schilinski, and 'Two Prosecutors' by Belarus-born Ukrainian director Sergie Loznitsa.

Set in the expansive deserts on the Spanish-Moroccan border, 'Sirat' tells the story of a Spanish father searching for his missing daughter at the rave parties in the desert.

Panahi's new film is openly political, focusing on the anger of the people against a repressive regime. 'Sound of Falling' probes the human psyche's propensity towards violence while 'Two Prosecutors' reflect on Josef Stalin's violent purge of dissent in the 1930s in the then Soviet Union.

"'Sirat' connects the audience with reality through a non-realistic style," says French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon. "It has a raw cinematic power I have rarely seen in recent cinema," he adds.

Among the ther Palme d'Or contenders are Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho's 'The Secret Agent', Italian filmmaker Mario Martone's 'Fuori', 'The History of Sound' by South African-born filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, 'Sentimental Value' by Danish director Joachim Trier, Chinese director Bi Gan's 'Resurrection' and American director Kelly Reichardt's 'The Mastermind'.

The Cannes competition jury this year include, American actor Halle Berry, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo and Moroccan-French writer Leila Slimani.