Cannes 2023: Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet wins the Golden Palm! Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex takes the top prize in Un Certain Regard, while The Settlers by Felipe Gálvez wins the Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI award

French writer-director Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall has won the Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Triet and the film’s team, including its star Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband's death, earned a long standing ovation at the ceremony, with the director telling the audience that it was ”the most intimate film I’ve ever written.”  Justine Triet is only the third woman to have won the Palme; Julia Ducournau won in 2021 for Titane, and Jane Campion took the prize in 1993 for The Piano. This year’s jury was presided over by last year’s Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund and also included Maryam Touzani, Denis Ménochet, Rungano Nyoni, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, Atiq Rahimi, Damián Szifron and Julia Ducournau. The film is produced by Les Films Pelléas and Les Films de Pierre. mk2 films handles international sales.

UK director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How To Have Sex won the top prize in Cannes Un Certain Regard. The film follows three teenage girls navigate sex, consent, and friendships on a euphoric post-exams vacation to a Greek party island, with a cast including Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake and Samuel Bottomley. It is produced by Wild Swim Films and Heretic, with mk2 handling international sales. John C. Reilly presided over this year’s Un Certain Regard jury, joined by French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne.

Felipe Gálvez’s The Settlers scored the Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI award. The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics – Thomas Abeltshauser, Olivier Bachelard, Constant Carbonnelle, Léon Cattan, Andrea Crozzoli, Youngmee Hwang, Karen Krizanovich and Nicolás Medina – praised the film for “its skillful storytelling, which sheds light on significant and often overlooked socio-political conflicts inherent in the history of Latin American colonization, and its distinct approach to its theme through its filmmaking style.” In the film, set in the beginning of the 20th century, a wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean half blood, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a “civilizing” raid. The film is produced by Quijote Films, Rei Cine, Quiddity Films, Volos Films, and mk2 handles the international sales.