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Cristian Mungiu's 'Fjord' wins the Palme d'Or, Neon's seventh in a row

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d'Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on May 23 for Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. TheWrap notes it is Mungiu's second Palme, after 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007, making him the tenth director to win two, and the seventh straight Palme winner for distributor Neon, a run that began with Parasite in 2019.

The jury, led by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, gave the Grand Prix to Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur. Best director was shared by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for The Black Ball and Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland; best actress went jointly to Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto for All of a Sudden.

“Mr. President of the Russian Federation, please put an end to this bloodshed.” — Andrey Zvyagintsev, via TheWrap

The Daily Star in Dhaka said the jury had “bypassed the media front-runners”, Fatherland and Minotaur, and listed honorary Palmes for Peter Jackson, John Travolta and Barbra Streisand, who could not attend. WION in India named Ryusuke Hamaguchi as director of All of a Sudden and noted Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's appearance at the closing ceremony, her 23rd year at the festival.

How each outlet framed it

• TheWrap — the records: Mungiu's double, Neon's streak, and Zvyagintsev's appeal to Vladimir Putin.
• The Daily Star — a surprise result that passed over the favourites.
• WION — the full prize list across sections, with an eye on Asian talent and Indian stars.

What we don't know yet: none of the three reports gives a release date for Fjord.