Italy, Coens and Lynch Score at Cannes

So said jurors at the 54th International Cannes Film Festival, which came to a close Sunday with Italian director Nanni Moretti winning the prestigious Palme d'Or for his emotional family drama The Son's Room.

It was the first time in 23 years that an Italian film has taken top honors at the festival, and a first for a contemporary Italian filmmaker perhaps best known for more lighthearted works based on his experiences, like Caro Diario.

"I am very happy when people tell me this is a tough and sweet film," said a beaming Moretti, who also plays a father whose son dies in a freak diving accident in the movie.

The night's other big winner was Austrian director Michael Haneke, who nabbed the festival's second-highest prize, the Grand Prix, for The Piano Teacher.

The French-language film generated controversy along the Croisette this year for its perverse sex scenes involving a sexually repressed piano instructor who begins a torrid affair with one of her students.

"The fact that this film got three awards is incredible," said Haneke. "I am very moved."

The Piano Teacher's two stars, famed French actress Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, were named Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively. (It was the second Best Actress award at Cannes for Huppert, who previously won for 1978's Violette Noziere.

Two American auteurs known for their fiercely independent streaks tied for Best Director honors for their noirish flicks. David Lynch for his L.A. saga Mulholland Drive and Joel Coen for the thriller The Man Who Wasn't There. Both are Cannes veterans who both have Palme d'Ors under their belts (Lynch for 1990's Wild at Heart and Coen for 1991's Barton Fink).

"I really like Joel and [producer-writer brother] Ethan Coen, so it's a great honor to share this with them," Lynch said.

Jodie Foster, who dropped out as president of this year's jury to star in The Panic Room, was on hand to present the director's award.

This jury included a list of venerable filmmakers like Monty Python alum and director Terry Gilliam (who wore a T-shirt jokingly sporting the words "I Can Be Bribed") and Chinese filmmaker Edward Yang (his film Yi Yi was screened at Cannes last year), as well as actresses Julia Ormond and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

While Lynch and the Coen brothers received plaudits, other high-profile Tinseltown entries failed to score with the jury. The Hollywood film that was expected to cancan all the way to the winner's circle, Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge, didn't spark much passion. DreamWorks' fractured fairy tale Shrek was also shut out.

While the critics complained that several of the 23 films screened this year weren't up to snuff, festival-goers complained there weren't enough stars. While Nicole Kidman, Frances McDormand, Billy Bob Thornton, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn all graced the red carpet, festival favorites like Jack Nicholson, who stars in Penn's The Pledge, and director Martin Scorsese never showed up.

One famous filmmaker who made a triumphant return to the Palais this year was Francis Ford Coppola, who premiered the new version of his 1979 Vietnam War epic and Palme d'Or winner, Apocalyse Now, with more than 53 minutes of restored footage.

Other Cannes winners included Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who won Best Screenplay for his war satire No Man's Land and Canada's Zacharias Kunuk, who picked up the Golden Camera (for a first-time director) for Atanarjuat the Fast Runner, a tale of two Eskimo brothers who challenge the rule of an evil shaman.

Finally, Melanie Griffith was on hand to receive a lifetime achievement award, which she dedicated to her recently deceased father, Peter Griffith.

"It's hard not to see out there the proud face of my father," she said during her tear-choked acceptance speech. "Somehow I know you're here, dad, and I know your smile is big and...I know you're up there saying 'Why are you wearing that dress?' "