Cannes Festival: Julia Ducournau's Belgian co-production Titanium wins the Golden Palm
Steph Deschamps / July 18, 2021
Frenchwoman Julia Ducournau has become the second woman to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes, jury president Spike Lee announced at the start of the awards ceremony, taking the organizers by surprise.
Spike Lee made this announcement right away, as he was supposed to announce the award for best actor. After confirmation of her coronation at the end of the ceremony, Julia Ducournau went on stage to receive the prestigious Palme d’Or. When I was little, it was a ritual at home to watch the closing ceremony with my parents and I was convinced that all the winning films had to be perfect, recalled the filmmaker. Now I'm here. My film is not perfect. It is even said to be monstrous. The monstrosity that scares some people and that runs through my work is a force to push the limits of normality, she continued.
The young woman then thanked the jury for recognizing the avid and visceral need we have for a more fluid and inclusive world, for calling for more diversity in our experiences in film and in our lives and for letting the monsters in.
The Frenchwoman, awarded for Titanium, becomes the second director crowned in the history of the festival 28 years after Jane Campion. After making a mark on the Croisette in 2016 with Grave, a shocking film set against a backdrop of cannibalism, Julia Ducournau returns this time with a metaphysical thriller. Co-produced by the Belgian company Frakas Productions and supported by the FWB, the feature film is distributed in Belgium by O'Brother Distribution.