Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme dOr at the 71st Cannes Film Festival for his film "Shoplifters".
The win marks just the second time this century that an Asian film has claimed the festival's top prize with the other being Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" in 2010, reports variety.com.
A moving portrait of a self-made family whose secret ultimately jeopardises their ability to stay together, the drama represents Kore-eda's'fifth time in competition.
American director Spike Lee won the Grand Prix for his anti-racism satire "BlacKkKlansman", one of just two American films in the official competition (the other, David Robert Mitchell's'poorly received "Under the Silver Lake", went home empty-handed).
After accepting the prize "on behalf of the People's Republic of Brooklyn, New York", Lee said: "Cannes was the perfect launchpad for this film. I hope the film can globally get us out of our mental slumber, and start to get back to truth, goodness, love and not hate."
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki earned the Jury Prize for her film "Capernaum", a wrenching neorealist portrait of a Beirut street urchin who sues his parents for bringing him into the world. She accepted the award on-stage with child actor Zain Al Rafeea, reports variety.com.
Best actor honour went to "Dogman" actor Marcello Fonte, who plays a small-town dog washer bullied to the point of breaking by a local thug.
Considering the sheer number of strong female performances at this year's festival, many were surprised to see Best Actress awarded to "Ayka" star Samal Yeslyamova, whose character -- an illegal alien who abandons her newborn baby in sub-zero Moscow -- certainly endures the most on-screen hardship.
Jury president and actress Cate Blanchett announced an exceptional Special Palme d'Or to Jean-Luc Godard, who has not attended Cannes since 2004 and was therefore not present. "The Image Book" producers Mitra Farahani and Fabrice Aragno accepted on his behalf.
According to variety.com, Blanchett described Godard as "a cinematic artist who is continually striving to define and re-define what cinema can be".
Best director honour went to "Ida" helmer Pawel Pawlikowski for "Cold War", a black-and-white relationship drama set against the backdrop of the Iron Curtain.
The best screenplay prize was shared by Italian writer-director Alice Rohrwacher for "Happy as Lazzaro" and Iranian collaborators Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar for their film "3 Faces".
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