The Cannes Film Festival jury has awarded its coveted Palme d’Or award to Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square.”
“Oh my god! OK,” the Swedish filmmaker exclaimed Sunday after he bounded onto the stage to collect the prize.
He led the crowd in a cheer, too.
Ostlund previously won the Jury Prize in the 2014 festival’s Un Certain Regard section for “Force Majeure.”
In “The Square,” Claes Bang plays the curator of an art museum, who sets up an installation inviting passers-by to altruism. But after he reacts foolishly to the theft of his phone, the respected father of two finds himself dragged into shameful situations.
Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West co-star.
Diane Kruger was named best actress at the festival, with Joaquin Phoenix honored as best actor .
Kruger, cited for her performance in Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade,” told the star-studded audience she was “overcome.” Kruger said. “Thank you a thousand times.”
Phoenix, in Lynne Ramsay’s thriller “You Were Never Really Here,” plays a tormented war veteran trying to save a teenage girl from a sex trafficking ring.
Phoenix wore sneakers on stage as he collected the prize. He said his leather shoes had been flown ahead of him.
He apologized for his appearance, saying the prize was “totally unexpected.”
Sofia Coppola won the best director prize for “The Beguiled,” her remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 Civil War drama. It is scheduled to open in Chicago sometime in June.
