May 25, 2009, 0:14 GMT
Cannes, France - Austrian director Michael Haneke on Sunday won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or for best film for his movie Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), a chilling story about rural Germany in the buildup to World War I.
Austrian director Michael Haneke poses for photographers after receiving the Palme d'Or Award for his film 'Das Weisse Band' (The White Ribbon) at the 62nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival, 24 May 2009, in Cannes, France. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
A total of 20 films were vying for the Palme d'Or, which is one of the most prestigious awards in cinema with this year's Cannes having emerged as a vintage year for the world's leading movie showcase.
But even in the tight race for the festival's iconic Palme d'Or, 67-year-old Haneke had already emerged as a favourite for the award for his austere black-and-white film, especially after missing out on Cannes' top prize in 2005 for his thriller Hidden.
Accepting the award, Haneke said he believed that happiness is a rare thing, 'but now I can say, this is a moment in my life when I am really happy.'
The story of his film is based around a series of sinister and violent acts in the small north German Protestant village and eerily point to the rise of European fascism between the two world wars.
At a gala ceremony in the French Riviera resort, the Cannes festival jury headed up by French actress Isabelle Huppert awarded the festival's second prize, the Grand Prix to French director Jacques Audiard for his movie Un Prophete (A Prophet).
Audiard's film is a gripping account of the brutal prison education handed out to a young French Arab.
It is the second consecutive year that a French director has won one of the festival's top awards with Laurent Cantet winning the Palme d'Or in 2008 for best film for his movie The Class (Entre Les Murs).
This year the award for best director went to the Philippines' Brillante Mendoza for his story of the violent world of Asian gangs in his film Kinatay.
The very strong field of candidates also comes despite the impact of the global recession on the motion picture business, taking a little bit of the steam out of the glitz and glamour out of the 12- day movie marathon in Cannes.
But there was also stiff competition at this year's festival for the best acting awards.
The festival jury decided to give the top male acting prize to Austria's Christoph Waltz for his role as an SS officer in US director Quentin Tarantino's wartime drama Inglourious Basterds.
In accepting the award, Waltz dedicated the prize to Tarantino, who he said was the creator of his character, the cruel and smart Colonel Landa.
Many critics believe Waltz stole the show in Inglourious Basterds from leading Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, who was billed as the star of the movie.
One surprise of the awards was the prize of top actress, which went to Charlotte Gainsbourg for her role in maverick Danish director Lars von Trier's highly contentious movie, the AntiChrist.
Britain's Andrea Arnold's tale of a young teenager's desolate life in Fish Tank and Korean director Park Chan Wook's priest-turned- vampire film Bak-Jwi (Thirst) were both awarded the festival's jury prizes.
With a slew of Asian movies having been selected for the festival's main lineup, Asian cinema did well in the awards with Chinese scriptwriter Mei Feng winning the best screenplay award for Chinese director Lou Ye's Chun Feng Zui De Ye Wan (Spring Fever).
Lou made the movie, about gay desire, despite an official ban on him making films after he found himself facing the wrath of Beijing's conservative film censorship board in 2007, when he submitted to Cannes his Summer Palace without receiving official permission.
The veteran French director Alain Resnais also received a lifetime achievement award for his work and his contribution to the history of cinema from the festival jury.
The 86-year-old Resnais' comedy Les herbes folles (Wild Grasses), about the romance between a man and woman in their 50s was his first film to compete at Cannes in about 30 years.
Cannes' Camera d'Or for best debut feature film was awarded to Australian director Warwick Thornton for his movie Samson and Delilah about two indigenous Australian teenagers growing up in the aimless, harsh and often personally destructive world of a small town in Central Australia.
Made with just 1.6 million Australian dollars (1.2 million dollars), Samson and Delilah also marks the growing voice of Aboriginal filmmakers in Australian cinema, as they help to give new vibrancy and dimension to a filmmaking industry that seemed to have lost its way in recent years.
Accepting the prize, an overcome Thornton declared: 'Vive Cannes, Vive le cinema.'
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