Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or Race Remains Open as Closing Ceremony Approaches
European auteurs dominate the 79th festival lineup, leaving critics and prediction markets divided ahead of Saturday’s announcement
The 79th Cannes Film Festival is set to conclude on Saturday with its closing ceremony, where jury president Park Chan-wook will announce the winner of the Palme d’Or. The South Korean director leads a nine-member panel tasked with selecting the top prize from a field of 22 competing films. Despite critical acclaim for a strong lineup of arthouse directors, no single film has emerged as a definitive frontrunner, leaving the race wide open.
The festival, which officially opened on 12 May with the French romantic comedy "The Electric Kiss", has been characterised by a lineup heavily dominated by European auteurs. Only two United States directors secured spots in the competition: James Gray with "Paper Tiger" and Ira Sachs with "The Man I Love". This departure from Hollywood’s usual dominance underscores the festival’s continued focus on independent and international cinema.
Among the notable contenders are Andrey Zvyagintsev’s "Minotaur" from Russia, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s "All of a Sudden" from Japan, and Pawel Pawlikowski’s "Fatherland" from Poland. The Guardian’s critic Peter Bradshaw has predicted "Minotaur" as the likely winner, while prediction market platform Polymarket has placed Hamaguchi’s film in the lead. Industry publication Screen Daily’s jury grid also ranks these three titles as the highest-scoring entries.
The competition includes several Cannes veterans, including Spain’s Pedro Almodovar, Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, and Romania’s Cristian Mungiu. Mungiu, who presented the film "Fjord" starring Renate Reinsve, joins Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda as the only previous Palme d’Or winners currently in contention. Previous winners of the award have seen significant career impacts, with last year’s second-place winner "Sentimental Value" later securing the Oscar for Best International Feature, and 2024 winner "Anora" sweeping five Oscars.
In addition to the Palme d’Or, the closing ceremony will see the presentation of several other awards, including the Grand Prix, the jury prize, and prizes for best director, best actor, best actress, and best screenplay. As the jury deliberates, early critical reactions and market data remain divergent, with no guarantee that these signals will reflect the final decision.
