Cannes 2016: Jury President George Miller HATED ‘Toni Erdmann’ and Blocked it From Winning Any Prizes

Cannes 2016 was an all-timer edition. It was just one great movie after another being screened on the Croisette and I loved every minute of it.

It’s very rare that you get a lineup like the one we got during the 70th edition of the prestigious festival: “Toni Erdmann,” “Elle”, “The Handmaiden”, “Paterson”, “Hell or High Water”, “Aquarius”, “Personal Shopper”, “The Salesman”, “Loving”, “Graduation”, “American Honey”, and “Julieta” …

And yet, what won the Palme d’Or that year? Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake.” It was honestly one of the worst juries assembled in quite some time. You can apparently thank jury president George Miller for that. It’s well-know amongst many circles that Miller despised Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann,” which was the absolute critical favorite that year. In fact, he went as far as to block the Ade’s film from getting any prizes.

I did, somewhat, “like” Loach's film, but it wouldn’t have even made my top 15 of Cannes that year. Miller had a vast amount of brilliant films to choose from. The jury also opted to give Xavier Dolan's terrible “It’s Only the End of the World” the Grand Jury Prize aka Second Place. Critics who were watching the awards ceremony at the DeBussy could be heard laughing when Dolan was announced as the winner.

The jury that year was composed of Miller, Kiefer Sutherland, Mads Mikkelson, Laszlo Nemes, Vanessa Paradis, Catherine Corsini, Valeria Golino and Kirsten Dunst.

I haven’t seen “Toni Erdmann” for a few years now, so I’m not able to tell you if it’s aged well or not, but it was a funny, moving and ambitious movie at the time.

I wrote about the film:

“lMaren Ade’s absurdist comedic realism. “Toni Erdmann” is not just laugh-out-loud funny, but surprisingly touching. Painting a portrait of 21st century Europe via the lens of an isolated and hard-working woman, Ade tackled numerous socio-political themes including that of work, family and globalism. Her main character reluctantly agrees to spend time with her estranged father when he unexpectedly arrives. He’s a practical joker who does his best to reconnect by pretending to be her life coach. Ade’s film is a brilliant mix of tonal comedy and drama. Clocking at 160 minutes, it takes its time to fully, but inevitably, hit you where it hurts.”