tried really hard this year to watch as many films from this section as I could. In total, I saw 13 of the 18 films competing in Un Certain Regard this year.
Just to briefly note: the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival is no longer simply a “near miss” category for films that didn’t make the main competition — which is what its reputation was pre-Covid. Its current goal is to showcase younger filmmakers who have only made one or two films and may sit outside the prestige and scale of the Palme d’Or race. Many of them end up “graduating” to the main competition with their next films.
For once — and this does not happen many times — this year’s UCR jury actually awarded its top prize to the most deserving film.
Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime,” a surreal tale of grief told through a tragedy uniting a mother, daughter, and teenage boy, was the big winner. The first 10 minutes are stunning, and the final stretch is the best of any film I saw at Cannes this year — Wollner blurs past and present to the point where you no longer know what’s real and what isn’t.
It should be noted that the two acclaimed American entries in UCR were shut out: Jordan Firstman’s directorial debut “Club Kid,” which was acquired for a reported $17M by A24, and Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” were ignored by the jury.
Other winners included Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog” and Louis Clichy’s “Iron Boy,” a hand-painted animated feature acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.
The UCR jury also recognized the all-female trio in Valentina Maurel’s “Forever Your Maternal Animal” — Daniela Marín Navarro, Marina de Tavira, and Mariangel Villegas — as well as Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset’s performance in Rafiki Fariala’s “Congo Boy.”
Full list of winners:
Prix Un Certain Regard: “Everytime,” by Sandra Wollner
Jury Prize: “Elephants in the Fog,” by Abinash Bikram Shah
Special Jury Prize: “Iron Boy,” directed by Louis Clichy
Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro, Marina de Tavira and Mariangel Villegas for “Forever Your Maternal Animal”
Best Actor: Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset for “Congo Boy”