The 64th Cannes International Film Festival finished with a bang last night as they announced the hotly anticipated awards for Palme d’Or, Grand Prix, Best Director, and Best Actress and Actor.

Reclusive American director Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, won the prestigious Palme d’Or, while Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da’ (‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’) received the Grand Prix, and French drama ‘Polisse’ by Maiwenn was awarded the Jury Prize. In other sought-after awards, Danish auteur Nicolas Windging Refn received Best Director for ‘Drive’; Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar took Best Screenplay for ‘Footnote’; Jean Dujardin won Best Actor for Michel Hazanavicius’s French film ‘The Artist’, and Hollywood star Kirsten Dunst was awarded Best Actress for Danish director Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’. Mr Von Trier wasn’t in attendance himself, having been expelled from the festival and declared Persona Non Grata for controversial comments made during a press conference. For a full list of winners, including the Critic’s Picks, Short Films and Un Certain Regard, click here .

Jury President Robert de Niro, alongside Jury Members Jude Law, Uma Thurman, Johnny To, Shi Nansun and Linn Ullmann, had the pleasure of selecting, and presenting, the prizes for this year’s festival. In his introductory speech, which he gave in French, de Niro thanked his jury peers for their assistance in selecting the award winners. At a post-awards press conference, De Niro said:
“Sometimes we had different tastes but we really enjoyed ourselves. I made some new friends. When you make a film, the drama has to be happening in front of the screen. Not behind it. That is how it was for us…. There were some intense debates over a number of films, three in particular: ‘Pater’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and ‘Le Havre’. But ‘Habemus Papam’ and ‘The Skin I Live In’ also stimulated discussion.”

Twenty features were in the running for top honours at Cannes this year, with the majority coming from European directors. The Arab world was, however, represented in force this year, as Egypt had the honour of being the first ever ‘guest country’. Cannes Film Festival General Delegate Thierry Frémaux commented that Egypt has a “long film tradition that underwent a radical transformation”. To signify this, ‘Tamantashar Yom’ (‘18 Jours’ or ‘18 Days’), an Egyptian film shot during the North African country’s recent uprising, held its world premiere during the festival. The film encapsulates a collection of 10 shorts made by filmmakers Yousry Nasrallah, Marwan Hamed, Sherif Arafa, Sherif El-Bendary, Kamla Abu Zekry, Mariam Abou Ouf, Mohamed Ali, Ahmed Alaa, Ahmad Abdallah and Khaled Marei.

Lebanese actress and director Nadine Labaki’s ‘Wo Hallah La Wen?’ (‘Where Do We Go Now?’), a film supported by the Doha Film Institute, received two awards – Prix Francois Chalais and the Ecumenical Jury Award Special Mention – for a portrait of a group of Lebanese women trying to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village. At a Saturday news conference, a François Chalais Prize spokesperson commented that the film is “a simple and pure tale that delivers us to the complexity of interreligious relations in the East. A universal fable, it offers a glimmer of hope in a burning issue.” The jury agreed, saying it is “a poetic tale balancing carefully between comedy and tragedy, provoking an emotion that is turned toward hope.” To see Nadine Labaki’s interview with DFI click here .

This year’s festival has definitely trumped last year’s, when a weakened economy and terrible weather, not to mention an erupting Icelandic volcano, wreaked havoc on festival attendees plans. The A-listers more than made up for it this year, however, with stars such as Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and the infamous Woody Allen all showing face on the red carpet.

The end of Cannes marks the beginning of a small break on the major film festival calendar, but everything will be kick started again in September with Venice, then Toronto, and of course our very own Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which is scheduled from October 25 – 29, 2011. We look forward to seeing you there!