Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves was among the hottest contenders for the Palme d’or, which was ultimately granted by Ruben Östlund and his jury to Anatomy of a Fall.

Kaurismäki wasn’t on hand at Saturday’s closing ceremony at the prestigious Palais des Festivals in Cannes, but his humour and warmth came across the short message read on stage by Fallen Leaves’ co-stars Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen. “I am deeply honoured for being able to participate in this great film festival, which continues to keeps cinema well alive. Twist and shout!”

The day before on May 26, Pöysti and Vatanen had collected another prize on behalf of…Alma the dog-aka Chaplin in the film, recipient of the Palme Dog’s Grand Jury Prize.

Fallen Leaves was among the international critics’ favourite films and was unanimously hailed for its deep humanistic and heart-warming take, with an anti-Putin and anti-war in Ukraine message.

The Jury Prize came on top of Kaurismäki’s earlier Cannes wins for The Man Without A Past (Grand Jury Prize, Best Actress to Kati Outinen and Ecumenical Prize in 2002).

The film produced by Sputnik, Bufo, in co-production with Germany’s Pandora, is due to open in Finland September 15 via B-Plan.

Among the international distributors that will launch it in their respective territories are MUBI (North America, the UK, Ireland, Turkey), Lucky Red (Italy), Diaphana (France), Folkets Bio (Sweden), Arthaus (Norway) and Camera Film (Denmark).

The 76th Cannes was another very strong year for film as an art-form, where the ultimate Palme d’or was handed out for the third time to a female director: French-born Justine Triet for her court room drama Anatomy of a Fall.

Among the top winners were:

  • Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses co-produced by Sweden’s NBC Films and Film i Väst received the Best Actress Award (Merve Dizdar),
  • Jonathan Glazer’s Auschwitz’ drama The Zone of Interest won the Grand Prize,
  • Trân ang Hùng’s gastronomic feast The Pot-au-feu Best Director,
  • Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Monster Best Screenplay (Sakamoto Yuji)
  • Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days Best Actor (Kōji Yakusho).

In the short film category, Iceland’s Fár by Gunni Martinsdóttir Schlüter won a Special Mention. The film which was picked among 4,000 short film entries was produced by Sara Nassim (behind Valdimar Jóhansson’s Lamb) and Rúnar Ingi Einarsson for the company Norður.

Commenting on the 76th Cannes Film Festival’s competition line up, Camera Film’s managing director Kim Foss said:

“Half way into the festival I felt frustrated - missing breakout films on the level of last years’ Close, Holy Spider and Decision to Leave. But then it picked up. A couple of the old geezers actually delivered (particularly Kaurismäki and Ceylan), and the younger, female directors, too. So all in all, it was a fairly diverse crop. And kudos to Ruben Östlund and the rest of the jury! These awards can end up in the strangest places, but overall, they felt fairer than in a long while. And no shared prizes was also an improvement.”

In other Cannes sections, the short film Norwegian Offspring by the Danish Film School’s graduate Marlene Emilie Lyngstad was awarded the €15,000 Cinef first prize. The Norwegian rising filmmaking talent was selected out of 2,000 entries from 476 film schools.