Joachim Trier’s SENTIMENTAL VALUE Takes Grand Prix at Cannes While a Neon Film Wins the Palme d’Or…Again

Cannes Announces Winners of its Prestigious Awards

Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value and Jafar Panahi‘s It Was Just an Accident have won two of the top awards at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

A Neon picture took home the Palme d’Or at Cannes for the sixth time in a row. This year, Jafar Panahi’s Iranian drama, It Was Just an Accident, was the film that won the coveted award. Meanwhile, Joachim Trier’s Oscar-worthy drama, Sentimental Value, walked away with the Grand Prix award.

It Was Just an Accident is a probing thriller and hostage drama about a one-time political prisoner who kidnaps a potentially guilty man and debates whether or not to kill him for past tortures which were unleashed upon the former prisoner. This film is a Neon picture and this movie directly follows Neon’s win last year for Sean Baker’s brilliant, Anora. Neon is known for taking the top prize at Cannes for several years now, as previously stated.

Sentimental Value is a rich dramatic picture with a cast of first-rate performers, including Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning. Said to be focused on themes of family and art (among others), Sentimental Value is a shoo-in for major Academy Award nominations, judging from its reception at Cannes.

Best Director went to Kleber Mendonça Filho for another political thriller, The Secret Agent which won Best Actor for its star, Wagner Moura. Nadia Melliti won Best Actress for her work in a coming-of-age story, The Little Sister. The Jury Prize went to Mascha Schilinski for Sound of Falling and Oliver Laxe for Sirat.

While Neon’s secured win for It Was Just an Accident is a good indicator that the new film will be very well-received, the Oscars may or may not reward the film for Best Picture. It all depends on Neon’s marketing strategy and how the studio gets the film rolled out to the public. Surely, it’s a great film but it will need a lot of love from the studio to secure victories at the Academy Awards. Sentimental Value has a lot more of the ingredients that potentially drive Oscar wins, but we’ll see how both films are received when they are officially released. Renate Reinsve is certainly long overdue for a Best Actress nomination and could be nominated for an Academy Award at next year’s ceremony.

Many predicted Jennifer Lawrence to win Best Actress for Die, My Love at Cannes. She’s certainly not out at the Oscars despite not winning at Cannes. Keep an eye out for more news on the winners at Cannes as they roll out in theaters and we begin to review them later in the year. It’s certainly not an accident what films won at Cannes, and, the race for more major awards by these films has officially begun.

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