68. Cannes Film Festival

Personal highlights from the 32 movies I saw at the 68th Cannes Film Festival:

Best film: "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)"
Runner-up: "Cemetery of Splendour"
honorable mentions: "The Lobster", "Carol", "Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Years)"

Soldiers sleep and goddesses come out to play as the boundary between this world and the next blurs in "Cemetery of Splendour" (u.l.); the conservative times of 50's America don't make it easy for an innocent shopgirl who falls for a married socialite and mother in "Carol" (u.r.); a young woman trained to kill in 9th century China realizes she still hasn't mastered the ways of the heart in "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)" (central); memories of that one special girl haunt a Frenchman with the intensity and bittersweetness of first love in "Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Years)" (l.l.); finding a partner has never been such a matter of life-and-death as in the dystopian future of "The Lobster" (l.r.)

Best director: 侯孝賢 (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) ("聶隱娘 (The Assassin)")
Runner-up: Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Cemetery of Splendour")
honorable mentions: Yorgos Lanthimos ("The Lobster"), Todd Haynes ("Carol"), László Nemes ("Saul fia (Son of Saul)")

Best lead actor: Benicio Del Toro ("Sicario")
Runner-up: Jesuthasan Antonythasan ("Dheepan")
honorable mentions: Vincent Lindon ("La loi du marché (The Measure of a Man)"), Harvey Keitel ("Youth"), Michael Caine ("Youth")

(top to bottom) Mysterious consultant leading an elite US government task force to crack down Mexican drug cartels may have an agenda of his own in "Sicario"; former Sri Lankan freedom fighter finds refuge in France but must resort to his old skills as deadly violence breaks out again in "Dheepan"; middle-aged man fights for his livelihood and dignity as the world looks on with fatal nonchalance in "La loi du marché (The Measure of a Man)"; a retired conductor and a once-prominent director retreat to the luxurious seclusion of a Swiss hotel only to be confronted with the regrets of their lifetimes in "Youth" 

Best lead actress: Rooney Mara ("Carol")
Runner-up: Lou Roy-Lecollinet ("Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Years)")
honorable mentions: Kirin Kiki ("あん (An)"), Cate Blanchett ("Carol"), Marion Cotillard ("Macbeth")

Best supporting actor: Josh Brolin ("Sicario")
Runner-up: Ben Whishaw ("'The Lobster")
honorable mentions: Patrick Stewart ("Green Room"), Guillaume Gouix ("Les anarchistes"), Sean Harris ("Macbeth")

Best supporting actress: Olivia Colman ("The Lobster")
Runner-up: Sarah Paulson ("Carol")
honorable mentions: Jane Fonda ("Youth"), Léa Seydoux ("The Lobster"), Angeliki Papoulia ("The Lobster")

Best screenplay: "The Lobster"
Runner-up: "Inside Out"
honorable mentions: "Carol", "Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Years)", "Dheepan"

Best editing: "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)" 
Runner-up: "Cemetery of Splendour"
honorable mentions: "Green Room", "Saul fia (Son of Saul)", "The Lobster"

Best cinematography: "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)"
Runner-up: Saul fia (Son of Saul)
honorable mentions: "Cemetery of Splendour", "Sicario", "Tale of Tales"

The imminence of death and the desperate urgency of surviving Ausschwitz recreated with terrifying immediacy and vividness in "Saul fia (Son of Saul)" (top); ethereal beauty and Gothic spook blended on an eye-popping tapestry of bloom and blood in "Tale of Tales" (left); the quiet hum of afterlife captured on expertly composed, seductively neon-lit imagery in "Cemetery of Splendour" (bottom); deadly terrain of the Mexican drug empire shot with equal mystique and menace that mark the human intrigue at play in "Sicario" (right); the art of colors and shadows elevated to the level of distilled poetry in "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)" (central) 

Best art direction: "Tale of Tales"
Runner-up: "Youth"
honorable mentions: "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)", "Cemetery of Splendour", "Carol"

Best costume design: "Tale of Tales"
Runner-up: "Carol"
honorable mentions: "Macbeth", "Youth", "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)"

Best film music: "聶隱娘 (The Assassin)"
Runner-up: "Tale of Tales"
honorable mentions: "Sicario", "Carol", "Dope"

Best musical number: group dance in "Cemetery of Splendour"
Runner-up: "Perfidia" by Cristina Alfaiate in "As mil e uma noites - Volume 3, o encantado (Arabian Nights - Volume 3, The Enchanted One)"
honorable mention: silent rave in "The Lobster", "Reality" by The Retrosettes Sister Band in "Youth", final rap by Shameik Moore in "Dope"

You'd stare too at this gloriously bizarre and endlessly joyous spectacle near the end of "Cemetery of Splendour" (u.l.); Léa Seydoux doesn't just lead an army of loners but has a penchant for techno music as well in "The Lobster" (l.l.); delicious indie pop served with chilled Alpine air carefully savored from all sides in "Youth" (u.r.); no need to see when Princess Scheherazade opens her mouth to sing that timeless, wondrous tune in "As mil e uma noites - Volume 3, o encantado (Arabian Nights - Volume 3, The Enchanted One)" (central r.); protest, rant, celebration all in one smashing, uproarious, proudly black closing performance in "Dope" (l.r.)     

Best sound: "Sicario"
Runner-up: "Saul fia (Son of Saul)"
honorable mentions: "Green Room", "Dheepan", "Tale of Tales"