Cannes: ‘The Missing Picture’ Wins Un Certain Regard Prize

See The Hollywood Reporter’s Live at Cannes video interviews with the winners below.

CANNES – The Un Certain Regard sidebar announced its winners on the second to last day of the festival, with the jury awarding the top prize to Rithy Panh for The Missing Picture, in a casual ceremony in the Palais’ Salle Bunuel.  

Cannes Jury Prize winner Thomas Vinterberg presided over the announcement. Along with Vinterberg, Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, French actress Ludivine Sagnier, Rio Film Festival director Ilda Santiago and Spanish producer Enrique Gonzalez Macho selected the winners from 18 films in the parallel section.

VIDEO: Live From Cannes: ‘Fruitvale Station’ Cast at the Fest

Vinterberg thanked everyone for the opportunity of the jury to select from a very “powerful” slate that he categorized as “brutal, insistingly unsentimental, sometimes disturbing, diverse, political, but always poetic.”

Vinterberg presented Panh with his prize, while Panh gave gratitude to the jury and all involved with the festival, as well as to cinemaphiles for supporting film.

Panh’s story of his family’s nightmarish experience during the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia during the 1970s is expressively told through first-person narration but acted through clay figures.

The Jury Prize was awarded to Hany Abu-Assad for Omar, who read a prepared speech. “I always make mistakes in speeches, so I’m reading in English, but I will also translate into French,” he said to applause from the audience, before adding: “Well, I don’t speak French but I’ll still try.”

Best First Film went to Fruitvale Station, writer-director Ryan Coogler‘s debut film about a shooting on Oakland mass transit that was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January. When receiving his award, he was joined onstage by producer Forest Whitaker. He also acknowledged the family of the victim portrayed in the film. “I give infinite thanks to the family of Oscar Grant for their help in making this film,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed to be with these talented filmmakers that made awesome, awesome work,” he added.

Best Director went to Alain Guiraudie for Stranger by the Lake, who paced the stage while trying to remember all the names to thank, only to be impersonated by a laughing festival chief Thierry Fremaux for his excited speech.

VIDEO: Live From Cannes: ‘Omar’ Director Hany Abu-Assad

The A Certain Talent honor went to Diego Quemada Diez for his directing work and the ensemble cast of The Golden Cage (La Jaula de oro), who thanked his cadre of young actors for “making [his] dream come true.”

Just before the Un Certain Regard ceremony at 7:30pm, The International Federarion of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) handed out their prizes in a small announcement in the Salon des Ambassadeurs in the Palais. The group honors one film from each of the festival’s official sections, and this year the critics were feeling a little blue. From the Director’s Fortnight, whose awards were handed out yesterday, they selected Jeremey Saulnier‘s Blue Ruin, while Abdellatif Kechiche‘s Blue is the Warmest Color was their top pick among official competition titles.

For the Un Certain Regard sidebar, they selected Manuscripts Don’t Burn, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof‘s banned story about censorship under the regime.

The top prizes for the main selection will be awarded Sunday night during the closing ceremony at the Palais des Festvials in Cannes, where jury president Steven Spielberg will announce the winners.