cannes (30 posts)

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The curtain was drawn following the 2009 Cannes Film Festival's closing feature, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, but that's when the fun really started.

Following the final film, judges deliberated on this year's awards winners and to the surprise of many, the Austrians and veritable newcomers came out on top.

The coveted Palme d'Or—Cannes's top prize—went to Austria's Michael Haneke and his drama The White Ribbon, which centers on impending World War I guilt and tragedy.

Acting honors were given out in similar fashion, as Austrian Christoph Waltz, star of Quentin Tarantino's World War II flick Inglourious Basterds, and fellow Aussie Charlotte Gainsbourg of Lars von Trier's Antichrist, were voted top thesps.

Gainsbourg stars opposite veteran actor Willem Dafoe in Antichrist, whom she thanked in her speech, while Waltz showed gratitude to Tarantino saying, "Above all I owe this to [my character, Nazi Colonel] Hans Landa and his unique and inimitable creator, Quentin Tarantino."

Among the surprise shutouts at this year's Cannes Festival were past Palm d'Or winners Jane Campion and Ken Loach and Oscar winners Ang Lee and Pedro Almodóvar.

Still need more Cannes fix? Check out the photo gallery below with shots from the past two weeks of your favorite celebs celebrating film in France.

Cannes

Heath Ledger's final performance has screened for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival, and the filmmakers aren't shying away from calling out the importance of the project.

Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, screening out of competition at the fest, even ended with an onscreen dedication: "A film from Heath Ledger and friends."

Ledger, who died in January 2008, plays a snake-oil salesman type who is found hanging from a London bridge by two members of a traveling theater troupe. The group introduces Ledger to a magic portal that allows him to travel to different fantastical worlds that exist within people's imaginations.

"There was irony throughout this film and there was even more irony post Heath's death," Gilliam told reporters. "I hope he would be pleased with it. I think he would be."

Film critics may be another story...

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AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau

This year's Cannes Film Festival is gonna be the Pitts. Or at the very least, one Pitt.

Brad Pitt, Penélope Cruz and Johnny Depp are among the A-listers expected to grace the finest red carpet on the French Riviera in the coming days, as the 62nd annual edition of the fest begins today and runs through May 24.

Pixar's Up has the honor of being the first time an animated feature—3-D to boot—has ever launched the event and will serve as the opening-night screening.

For a look at the other buzz films set to screen both in and out of competition for the Palme d'Or, take a look through our Cannes gallery.

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Surprise, surprise. A panel headed up by Sean Penn had politics on the brain.

Benicio Del Toro was unanimously named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival Sunday for his portrayal of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's four-hour biopic, Che.

The nine-member Cannes jury, which included Natalie Portman and director Alfonso Cuaron and was presided over by Penn, presented the awards Sunday, the final day of the festival.

"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara, as well as to Soderbergh, who got up every day, forced me to this," Del Toro said during the ceremony. "He was there pushing it, and he pushed all of us."

Soderbergh also directed the Puerto Rican actor's Oscar-winning turn in 2000's Traffic.

Meanwhile, the Palme d'Or—Cannes' prize for best movie—sidestepped Clint Eastwood's well-received thriller The Changeling and went to a French film for the first time since 1987. Laurent Cantet's The Class, about the lives of students and teachers at a tough Parisian junior high school that featured real students and teachers, took the top honor.

Gomorra, about the criminal underworld in Naples, won the second-place Grand Prize, while Il Divo, about former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti, took home the third-place Jury Award.

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Down-low lovebirds Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong couldn't stifle their romance on the Riviera as they attended the Dolce & Gabbana bash in Cannes. A source tells E! News that Kate and Lance "were holding hands in their car and when photographers' flashes started going off, Kate kind of jumped up, startled."

"But inside the party they were smooching and looking very cozy," said our super snooper, adding that "they've been staying together on a yacht, which is moored in the bay of Cannes. They're very much an item. "

Hey, whatever floats your boat. Or yacht, as the case may be.

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UPDATE: On the red carpet before the amfAR benefit auction Thursday night in Cannes, Madonna, with hubby Guy Ritchie by her side, told E! News that making I Am Because We Are, a documentary about the plight of children orphaned by AIDS in Malawi, "was the most rewarding thing that I have ever done. Ever.

"It's about people and every time I watch it I go on the journey I went on when I made it all over again and I cry. I'm thrilled that people have been touched by it."

I Am Because We Are, which boasts Madonna as an executive producer, screened Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival.

Asked how her Malawian son David, whom she's still in the process of adopting, is doing, the Material Mom replied, "Wonderful. I love him so much, he's incredible."

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Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson strut their stuff in glamorous Cannes, where LiLo will be deejaying Naomi Campbell's birthday party.

Sounds like a recipe for...fun! But let's hope DJ Sam's able to offer some professional guidance with the gig, because you wouldn't want to displease the birthday girl on her big day, right?

(That is not a rhetorical question.)

Anyway, don't worrry if your invite got lost in the mail—check out our all-access gallery of Cannes' comings and goings.

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Once she confirmed her pregnancy, Angelina Jolie had no problem emphasizing her pregnant belly in all those billowing Earth Mother dresses she wore on the Cannes red carpet.

But the mom-to-be seems to have magically slimmed down today when snapped outside the Hotel du Cap, where she and Brad have been staying (sans brood) to be close to the film festival.

Funny what happens once people think the cameras are off them.

FAME

Lindsay Lohan is a regular fixture at best bud Samantha Ronson's DJ gigs. But now it's apparently time for LiLo to step up to the turntables, as she's expected to spin at Naomi Campbell's Dolce & Gabbana-hosted 38th birthday party in Cannes Friday.

Maybe Sam will give Lindsay some pointers before her big deejaying debut!

2008 Lucasfilm Ltd.

The fourth installment of Indiana Jones doesn’t hit theaters until Thursday, but there’s already buzz about making a fifth film without Harrison Ford in the lead role.

While walking the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Kung Fu Panda, George Lucas hinted to reporters about the possibility of a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

"I haven't even told Steven [Spielberg] or Harrison this," he said. "But I have an idea to make Shia [LaBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out."

Although it’s hard to imagine what Lucas has up his sleeve, passing the bullwhip to LaBeouf’s character, Mutt Williams, could make sense. Rumors have been swirling for months that Mutt is Indiana’s lovechild with Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen.

But, for now, diehard Indy fans can breathe easy: Ford, 65, hasn’t hung up his fedora just yet. On Friday he told reporters, "Till they tell me otherwise, I will continue to be Indiana Jones."