Ruben Ostlund’s ‘Triangle of Sadness’ Wins the Palme d’Or

Here’s how it all went down. It all began with the jury choosing nine films they wanted to reward with a prize and then it went on from there. I reported correctly, before the awards ceremony, all nine films. I’m told The Dardennes’ were in contention for the Palme, with Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” until the very end. Kyle Buchanan has more or less confirmed this assumption.

Whether you like him or not, Ostlund is a major part of the future of cinema; FORCE MAJEURE, THE SQUARE and TRIANGLE OF SADNESS are all great satires of 21st century absurdism. I absolutely love this win.

I also adore that Dhont had to share his Grand Jury Prize with Claire Denis’ “The Stars at Noon” (possibly her worst film). Fabulous stuff. And, why give the Dardennes a “Special 75th Anniversary Prize”? Because they’ve already won the Palme d’Or twice and shouldn’t get it again? Their “Tori and Lokita” was a gripping thriller worthy of the Grand Prix or even a Best Director prize.

Tarik Saleh winning for Best Screenplay is another pleasurable surprise. His “Boy From Heaven” was the kind of spy thriller that would be deemed Grade-A if it were made in the U.S — watch out for that film whenever it gets released in your neck of the woods. I’ll be compiling and publishing my ten best of the fest on Monday and it might be included in there.

This jury clearly didn’t care for David Cronenberg, James Gray, Kelly Reichardt, Saeed Roustaee, Leonor Seraille, Kirill Serebnikkov, Arnaud Desplechin, and Valeri Bruni Tedeschi

The two best competition films that I saw at Cannes 2022 were “Crimes of the Future” and “Triangle of Sadness”. So, I’m pretty pumped by this Ostlund win, especially that Dhont didn’t get the Palme. Rejoice for Ostlund, a film you will absolutely need to see now, whenever it comes out later this year.

Palme d’Or: “Triangle of Sadness”
Grand Prize: “Close” and “The Stars at Noon”
Best Director: Park Chan Wook (“Decision to Leave”)
Special 75th Anniversary Prize: Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne (“Tori et Lokita”)
Jury Prize: “The Eight Mountains” and “EO”
Best Actor: Song Kang Ho (“Broker”)
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh (“Boy From Heaven”)
Best Actress: Zar Amir Embrahimi (“Holy Spider”)
Camera d’Or: “War Pony”