<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117595.cms" alt="/photo/1117595.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">Jury members of 58th Cannes Film Festival pose with jury president Kusturica at opening ceremony in ...
Jury members of 58th Cannes Film Festival pose with jury president Kusturica at opening ceremony in Cannes. Jury members of the 58th Cannes Film Festival stand with jury president and Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica (2nd L) during the opening ceremony in Cannes May 11, 2005 (Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br />The jury retired to the sumptuous Villa Domergue in the hills above this French Riviera resort early Saturday to deliberate before announcing the winners . The festival wraps up Sunday with screenings of the competition films.<br /><br />After 10 solid days of glitz and glamour, the 58th Cannes film festival will award the Palme d''Or prize for best picture Saturday with a French thriller on racial tensions widely tipped to win. <br /><br />A nine-member jury led by Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica and including US Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Hong Kong director John Woo and Mexican actress Salma Hayek was to select the winner from the 21 contenders.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117596.cms" alt="/photo/1117596.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">French actress Binoche and actor Auteuil arrive for Austrian director Haneke''s film Cache at official screening in Cannes.(Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />The hands-down favorite was France''s Hidden, a taut psychological thriller about European indifference to Arab problems starring Oscar winner Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, and directed by Austria''s Michael Haneke.<br />It would be the first French triumph since 1987 when Maurice Pialat''s "Under Satan''s Sun" claimed the top prize.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117597.cms" alt="/photo/1117597.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">Jury president Bosnian director Emir Kusturica holds a film clapper in Cannes (Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br />Critics said this year''s competition failed to produce any masterpieces but had a high overall level of quality after an uneven festival last year. The contenders largely steered clear of in-your-face political cinema that produced the 2004 winner, Michael Moore''s anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Although most insiders say the smart money is on "Hidden," Cannes juries are always good for surprises and several other pictures by cinematic heavyweights stood out in the 10-day competition.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117598.cms" alt="/photo/1117598.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">US director Gus Van Sant attends a press conference for his in competition film Last Days at the 58th Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Last Days</span>, by US director Gus Van Sant, won over many critics for its minimalist depiction of a character closely based on the late Kurt Cobain of the grunge rock band Nirvana. <br /><br />Van Sant picked up the Palme d''Or in 2003 for "Elephant," his take on the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. <br /><br />The Child, a Belgian film about a petty thief who sells his newborn son and then desperately struggles to recover him, was also well-regarded, particularly for its young male lead, Jeremie Renier. <br /><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section5"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117599.cms" alt="/photo/1117599.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">Canadian director David Cronenberg (R) poses with cast members William Hurt (L), Ashton Holmes (2nd-L), Maria Bello (C) and Viggo Mortensen (2nd-R) during red carpet arrivals for the director''s in competition film ''A History of Violence'' at the 58th Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br />Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg won cheers for A History of Violence, a deceptively simple thriller starring Viggo Mortensen as a small-town family man pushed to the edge when a group of gangsters takes him for one of their own. <br /><br />Audiences also loved US director Jim Jarmusch''s Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray as a man who sets off on a road trip to see old flames when he hears of a son he never knew he had.<br /><br /> Danish director Lars von Trier, who won in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark, divided critics this year with Manderlay, a drama about slavery and its lingering effects on American race relations. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section6"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117600.cms" alt="/photo/1117600.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">FestivalJury member Mexican actress Salma Hayek (L) poses with jury president Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica(Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br />The fact that all of the aforementioned directors - apart from Haneke - are previous prizewinners in Cannes led film industry trade magazine Variety to sum up the festival with the headline: "Old masters outshine young guns". Two of this year''s biggest hits - Woody Allen''s dark London-based drama "Match Point" and George Lucas''s "Star Wars" sequel "Revenge of the Sith" - screened out of competition.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section7"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="71.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1117601.cms" alt="/photo/1117601.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal">Jury member German-Turkish director Fatih Akin poses in Cannes on the eve of the 58th International Film Festival. (Photo: Reuters)</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br />Although there were five Asian films in the running, all were considered to have only an outside chance of bringing home the gold. Among the more popular entries were "Shanghai Dreams" by Wang Xiaoshuai and Three Times by Taiwanese veteran Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Bashing, a Japanese film about an aid worker kidnapped in the Middle East, failed to revive the controversy around the war in Iraq that helped Fahrenheit 9/11 win the Palme in 2004. </div> </div>
