Cannes: ‘Embrace of the Serpent,’ ‘My Golden Years,’ ‘Mustang’ Win Directors’ Fortnight Prizes

The independent section at Cannes is officially non-competitive, but sponsors offer awards

Embrace of the Serpent
"Embrace of the Serpent"

“Embrace of the Serpent,” “My Golden Days” and “Mustang” have been named winners of different competitions in the Directors’ Fortnight section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Directors’ Fortnight is an independent selection of films that runs concurrently with Cannes, and is officially non-competitive. Sponsors, however, offer specific prizes to films in the fortnight.

The Art Cinema Award is presented by the International Confederation of Art Cinemas, which helps the winning film secure distribution in arthouse cinemas in 32 countries across Europe, Latin America and Africa. It was presented to the stylish black-and-white film “Embrace of the Serpent,” by Colombian director Ciro Guerra.

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The SACD Prize is awarded by the Societe des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques, and is open to any French-language film screening in the section. The winner was Arnaud Desplechin’s “My Golden Years,” which stars Mathieu Amalric. Its U.S. rights were bought by Magnolia at Cannes.

The Europa Cinemas Label goes to a European film in Directors’ Fortnight, and encourages exhibitors in its 2,891-screen, 64-country network to program the film. It was given to Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang,” which was acquired during the festival by Cohen Media Group.

The Illy Prize for short films in the fortnight went to “Rate Me!” and carries with it a 2,500 Euro cash prize.

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And the Oceans Prize went to the short film “Pape.” It is presented by France O in collaboration with Directors’ Fortnight and SPI, the union for independent producers.

The winners:

Art Cinema Award: “Embrace of the Serpent,” Ciro Guerra
SACD Prize: “My Golden Days” (“Trois Souvenirs de Ma Jeunesse”), Arnaud Desplechin
Europa Cinemas Label: “Mustang,” Deniz Gamze Erguven
Illy Prize: “Rate Me!” Fyzal Boulifa
Special mention: “The Exquisit Corpus,” Peter Tscherkassky
Oceans Prize: “Pape”

See exclusive stories and pictorials from TheWrap Magazine: Cannes Edition:

Isabelle Huppert (Sandro Baebler)
Sandro Baebler

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