The German drama "Toni Erdmann" is a hot contender for the Golden Palm award at the 2016 Cannes film festival. Critics favor director Maren Ade's film, but in the end, it's up to the jury to decide on Sunday.
Image: Reuters/R. Duvignau
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German entry among top contenders for the Cannes Golden Palm
The German drama "Toni Erdmann" is a hot contender for the Golden Palm award at the 2016 Cannes film festival. Critics favor director Maren Ade's film, but in the end, it's up to the jury to decide on Sunday, May 22.
Image: Reuters/J.-P. Pelissier
Ovations and praise for Maren Ade
The young German director unexpectedly took the festival by storm with her film "Toni Erdmann." Maren Ade (center), surrounded by her lead actors Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, was just as surprised. She said she'd probably be able to realize what happened in Cannes once the festival was over.
Image: Reuters/Y. Herman
German humor
The success of "Toni Erdmann" was particularly surprising because the film is not only German, it's funny. Many people refuse to believe Germans can have a sense of humor: With its exceptional dialogues and actors, "Toni Erdmann" might shatter that prevailing cliché.
Image: Komplizen Film/NFP marketing & distribution
The other candidates
However, the competition for the coveted Golden Palm isn't over yet. Several heavyweights in the movie world will present their films toward the end of the festival. Xavier Dolan, a young Canadian wunderkind, is in Cannes with "Juste la Fin du Monde." It's the 27-year-old director's sixth movie, and the fourth to premiere at the Cannes film festival.
Image: Festival de Cannes
Romantic drama
Star power on the red carpet is guaranteed when actor-cum-filmmaker Sean Penn presents his fifth film on Friday: In "The Last Face," set amid the wars and disasters in Sudan and Liberia, the director of an international aid agency (Charlize Theron) meets a relief aid doctor (Javier Bardem).
Image: Festival de Cannes
Social challenges in Iran
Asghar Farhadi's film "Forushande" was finished just in time for the Oscar-winning Iranian director to be invited to Cannes to present his film on Saturday, May 21. Farhadi tells the story of a young couple's relationship in present-day Iran.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G.Horcajuelo
Stalking the rapist
Paul Verhoeven's new film is bound to draw crowds shortly before the competition comes to a close, too. After working in Hollywood for the past few years, the Dutch director has returned to Europe. His contribution to the Cannes film Festival is the Franco-German co-production "Elle," a psychological thriller starring Isabelle Huppert in the role of a woman threatened by a masked assailant.
Image: Festival de Cannes
Double Palme d'Or winners
It would be quite a sensation if the Golden Palm went to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, directors and brothers from Belgium. Not because they aren't worthy of winning the award, but because they've actually won it twice already. They went ahead and celebrated the premiere of their film "La Fille Inconnue" on the red carpet anyway.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F.Maquaire
A bus driver's tale
Jim Jarmusch's new film has proven to be popular in Cannes, too. The US director (right, with actors Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani) presented "Paterson," the story of a New Jersey bus driver. Typical Jarmusch fare: sensitive, laconic, with an eye for detail, and great acting.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Horcajuelo
Strong Romanians
Two Romanian films, "Sieranevada" (above photo) by director Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu's "Bacalaureat" are also expected to have outsider's chances. Puiu's domestic drama takes a close look at the mechanisms of modern society, and Mungiu's film tells the story of a father who invests all his ambitions in his daughter's schooling.
Image: Festival de Cannes
Veteran British filmmaker
"I, Daniel Blake" did well in Cannes, too. The 70-year-old British director Ken Loach - shown here on the red carpet, in the center, surrounded by his actors - examines the life of an elderly man after he suffers a heart attack. As usual in Loach films, it's about outsiders in British society.
Image: Getty Images/T.Fewings
Politics from Brazil
Holding signs saying "Stop the coup" and "Brazil is no longer a democracy," Kleber Mendonca Filho and his crew protested against the impeachment of suspended president Rousseff. At the festival, the Brazilian director-writer presented the social drama "Aquarius," which was for the most part well-received by the critics.
Image: Reuters/J. P. Pelissier
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For about 12 years now, the British magazine "Screen" has published a critics' review of the films competing at the Cannes film festival, inviting 11 renowned international critics to judge the movies: A four-star rating is the critics' highest praise for a film, and the opinions of the 11 critics are compiled to produce an average rating.
German filmmaker Maren Ade's movie "Toni Erdmann" leads the pack with a top rating of 3.8. The only other film that made it that far up the list in Cannes, experts say, is Mike Leigh's 2014 biographical drama, "Mr. Turner".
Filmmaker Maren Ade and lead actress Sandra HullerImage: Getty Images/P. Le Segretain
Critics of the trade magazine "Hollywood Reporter" also pinpoint the German film as a clear favorite among all films at the competition.
Strong competition
It's still too soon for Maren Ade to break out the champagne. The jury and the critics don't always see eye to eye.
A few top-class directors, including the Canadian Xavier Dolan and Iranian Asghar Farhadi, still need to screen their films before the jury decides on the 2016 winner of the Golden Palm.
Xavier Dolan's film is still coming upImage: Reuters
No matter how Australian jury president George Miller and his team decide on Sunday, May 22, "Toni Erdmann" has already raked in fame and glory. Ade's film is almost certain to receive an award - if not the coveted top award, then one of the many other distinctions, including Best Screenplay, Best Actor or the Jury's Prize, which comes right after the Golden Palm.
'Toni Erdmann' in demand worldwide
The critics weren't the only ones to react positively to Maren Ade's third feature film: In the wake of the premiere, the film rights were sold to several countries, so "Toni Erdmann" won't just hit movie theaters in Germany soon, but screens in many other European countries as well. The US can also look forward to the drama: Sony Pictures Classics has bought the US rights to the film.
So, after years of absence from the Cannes film festival, a German film is unexpectedly triumphant on the Croisette. And the film's director is a woman, which is particularly interesting in the light of the many debates on an apparent disdain for female directors.
On Sunday, film buffs will know more when George Miller announces: "And the winner is…"
