A jury headed by director Jane Campion has chosen a student film from Chicago as the best of this year’s Cinefondation competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Needle,” a short film made by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was awarded the 15,000-Euro first prize, which also comes with a guarantee that the winning filmmaker’s first feature will be shown at Cannes.

“En Attendant Le Degel,” directed by Sarah Hirtt from INSAS in Belgium, won the 11,250-Euro second prize, while the 7,500-Euro third-place award went in a tie to “In Acvariu” (“In the Fishbowl”) from Tudor Cristian Jurgiu from UNATC in Romania, and “Pandy” (“Pandas”) from Marus Vizar from FAMU in the Czech Republic.

The Cinefondation competition consisted of 18 student films chosen...

Once in a while at Cannes (though definitely not very often), the focus can shift away from the films and the deals and the moguls, and onto a guy who wrote about film. It happened on Thursday afternoon, when the American Pavilion hosted a panel in honor of the late critic Roger Ebert, a fixture on the Croisette before his death in April.

Panelists Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and Eric Kohn of Indiewire spoke of their memories of Ebert both at Cannes and elsewhere – and at the end of the discussion and Q&A on a terrace now named the Roger Ebert Conference Center, the panelists and audience trooped outside to pose for a “500 thumbs up” photo.

Before that, though, the press’ focus was on Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska,” the black-and-white road movie that won mixed but generally...

“Salvo” has won the top prize in Cannes’ International Critics’ Week sidebar, a selection of seven films from first- and second-time directors.

The story of a hitman for the Sicilian Mafia whose life changes after he spares the life of the blind sister of one of his victims, “Salvo” was directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, and is an Italian and French co-production. In addition to the main award, the Nespresso Grand Prize, it also won the France 4 Visionary Award, a second honor given to one of the Critics’ Week features.

The Grand Prize carries a 10,000-Euro prize, and the France 4 Visionary Award an additional 4,000 Euro.

Daria Belova’s “Come and Play” (“Komm und spiel”) won the Critics' Week Discovery Award for short film from a field of 10 that included one American film...

The Cannes Film Festival grew wet again on Wednesday, while inside the theaters one film was greeted with critical storm clouds and another with only the sunniest of reactions.

And as Thursday began with Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” (early responses ranging from “sublime” to “respectable,” from “maybe Payne’s best” to “Payne’s weakest”), the weather and the lines and the craziness began to wear on even the staunchest Cannes partisans.

“Invariably, those of us who attend the fest count the days back home until we depart, then about three quarters of the way through we start counting the days until can get the hell out of here,” wrote Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone, who is also reviewing Cannes...