‘Happiest’ tops Un Certain Regard – Koji Fukada wins Jury Prize for ‘Harmonium’

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LOS ANGELES, May 22, (RTRS): Finnish boxing biopic “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki” scored a knockout in this year’s Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival, beating 17 other titles to take the top prize from a jury headed by Swiss actress Marthe Keller. “Thank you for your weird taste in cinema,” flabbergasted director Juho Kuosmanen stammered upon accepting the prize for the black-and-white period piece — his first feature film. “I am so surprised and happy”.

The film, set in 1962, covers a few weeks in the life of the eponymous Finnish pugilist, a former European lightweight champion, as he gruelingly prepares for a world featherweight title fight against American champion Davey Moore. Shot in richly textured, monochrome 16mm format, the film spends less time in the ring than it does on the underdog fighter’s exhausting training and publicity circuit. Warmly received by Cannes audiences, it will surely be a title to contend with in the next foreign-language Oscar race.

The runner-up Jury Prize went to Japanese writer-director Koji Fukada’s “Harmonium”, a complex moral tale of familial tensions stoked by a mysterious interloper, with an ensemble cast led by international Japanese star Tadanobu Asano. “Shot in a meticulous yet unmannered style, the film provides the veteran cast with an ideal framework to mount masterful performances”, enthused Variety critic Maggie Lee in her review.

There was more good news for Japanese cinema with the Special Jury Prize, which was awarded to the French-Japanese animation “The Red Turtle” — the first feature by Oscar-winning Dutch shorts animator Michael Dudok de Wit, deemed a “tiny artistic treasure” by Variety critic Peter Debruge. An unusual collaboration with revered animation house Studio Ghibli, this gentle, entirely dialogue-free fable was snapped up for a US release earlier this week by Sony Pictures Classics, and is already considered a significant player for next year’s best animated feature Oscar — a category that has, in recent years, been friendly to foreign arthouse toons.

Established

Best Director was presented to a film already established as a festival favorite: US helmer Matt Ross’ “Captain Fantastic” unspooled at Sundance in January, winning over audiences with its colorful story of a free-spirited widower (vibrantly played by Viggo Mortensen) determined to raise his children his own way. Ross took the stage with his leading man in tow, to a roar of approval from the gathered crowd in the festival’s Debussy theater. “I couldn’t have done this without”, Ross said. “He’s my collaborator”.

Finally, in a festival dominated by talk of female-driven narratives and perspectives, femme filmmakers did not go home empty-handed. French sister duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin landed the Best Screenplay prize for their feminist military drama “The Stopover”. The film, adapted by the Coulins from Delphine’s novel “Voir du pays”, traces the tensions between two Brittany-born servicewomen returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Variety’s review praised it for being “as cuttingly observed as it is pristinely composed”.

Keller’s fellow jurors included Austrian director Jessica Hausner, Mexican actor and filmmaker Diego Luna, French actress Celine Sallette and Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, an Un Certain Regard prizewinner two years ago for “Force Majeure”.

Winners:

* Un Certain Regard Prize: Juho Kuosmanen, “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki”

* Jury Prize: Koji Fukada, “Harmonium”

* Best Director: Matt Ross, “Captain Fantastic”

* Best Screenplay: Delphine and Muriel Coulin, “The Stopover”

* Special Jury Prize: Michael Dudok de Wit, “The Red Turtle”

Confirming its status as a Palme d’Or frontrunner, 2016 Cannes sensation “Toni Erdmann” won the International Critics’ Prize Saturday for best picture in Cannes Competition. Plaudit was awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci).

A “stunningly singular” third feature from Germany’s Maren Ade, per Variety’s Guy Lodge, “Maren Ade” has been one of the best reviewed Cannes Competition movies in the last decade. Lodge, for example, called it a “unique study of an estranged but mutually depressive father and daughter” which is “a humane, hilarious triumph”. Last year’s Fipresci Competition winner, “Son of Saul”, went on to Oscar glory, snagging an Academy Award in the foreign language category. Sold by The Match Factory, “Toni Erdmann” is a Komplizen Film production in co-production with Coop99, KNM, Missing Link Films and SWR/WDR/ARTE. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired “Toni Erdmann” for North and Latin America.

Reimagined

“’No Country For Old Men’ as reimagined by the Romanian New Wave,” wrote Variety’s Peter Debruge, “Dogs”, from Romanian first-feature director Bogdan Mirica, a crime thriller set in a benighted corner of Romania, won Fipresci’s jury vote for best picture in this year’s Un Certain Regard. Produced by EZ Films, 42 KM Film and Argo Film, “Dogs” is sold by Bac Films.

Fipresci’s third prize, awarded to a title in either Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week, was snagged by “Raw”. A femme campus cannibal gorefest, cast by critics as a confident, stylish feature debut from France’s Julia Ducornau, it features a no-holds-barred perf from on-the-rise actress Garance Marillier as a student vet whose vulnerability is offset by her flesh-eating. Lead-produced by Jean des Forets, and co-produced by Rouge Intl and FraKas Prods, the Wild Bunch-sold “Raw” will have been gobbled up by distributors at Cannes.

Xavier Dolan’s Competition contender, “It’s Only the End of the World,” about a terminally ill man, won Cannes’ Ecumenical Award. Cannes head Thierry Fermaux accepted an award from Fipresci in thanks for it 50 years jury presence at Cannes, and Cannes; support for the international press.

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