US director Terrence Malick wins Cannes' Palme d'Or

By Andrew McCathie May 22, 2011, 18:41 GMT

President of the Jury, US director Robert De Niro (C) poses with US actress Kirsten Dunst (Best Performance By an Actress award for \'Melancholia\') and French actor Jean Dujardin (Best Performance by an Actor for \'The Artist\') during the closing award ceremony of the 64th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, 22 May 2011. The award ceremony is followed by the screening of \'Les Bien-Aimes\' (Beloved) by French director Christophe Honore, presented out of competition. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

Cannes, France - US-born director Terrence Malick won the Palme d'Or for best film on Sunday at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, for a movie about a Midwestern US family in the 1950s.

Malick's film, The Tree Of Life, was one of 20 movies vying for Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or.

'We felt that the size, the importance and the intention (of the film) served to fit the prize,' said US actor Robert De Niro, who headed the nine-person jury.

The 67-year-old Malick's film starred Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and Oscar-winner Sean Penn as father and son, with the story moving through several different time changes including a long segment on the creation.

The reclusive Malick was not on hand to accept the prize. The director has rarely given a press interview over a movie career spanning more than four decades.

'I know he is thrilled with this award, as are all of us,' said Bill Pohlad, one of the producers of the film accepting the prize on Malick's behalf at the gala award ceremony.

He went on to say that Malick was 'very shy.'

The best actress award went to Kirsten Dunst of the United States, for her performance in controversial Danish director Lars von Trier's movie Melancholia, about a woman's descent into madness as the end of the world approaches.

Von Trier rocked the festival with provocative remarks made in jest, in which he expressed sympathy for Hitler and criticized Israel.

The off-colour comments resulted in von Trier being banned from Cannes by the festival board. It was the first time in the festival's 64-year history that it has taken such action.

'What a week,' said Dunst, accepting the award.

She went on pay tribute to von Trier: 'I want to thank Lars for giving me the chance to be so brave and free in this film.'

The last US film to win the Palme d'Or was Michael Moore's satirical documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.

A former Rhodes scholar, Malick has made only five films since he first emerged onto the world cinema stage in 1973 with his critically acclaimed Badlands, about a couple on a murder spree.

In 1979, Malick won Cannes' best director award for his second movie, Days of Heaven, set in the early 20th century in Texas.

Two decades later his next film, the Pacific war drama The Thin Red Line, was nominated for seven Academy Awards. It also won the Golden Bear, the Berlin Film Festival's top prize in 1999. His last film, The New World, an historical adventure, was released in 2005.

Speaking at a press conference, the members of the jury acknowledged that the strong lineup of films in the festival's main competition had resulted in very passionate discussions on distributing the awards.

Belgian directing brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan shared the festival's second prize, the Grand Prix.

The Dardennes won the award for their movie Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with Bike) about 11-year-old Cyril, who is trying to find his way in the world after being abandoned by a down-on-his-luck father. The Dardennes have already won the Palme d'Or twice.

Ceylan's award was for Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da (Once Upon A Time In Anatolia), where a police investigation into murder sheds light on the vested interests that rule small-town political life in Turkey.

France's Jean Dujardin won the best actor award for his role in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, in which he played a vain silent movie hero in 1927 who can't adjust to the new talkies era.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn won the best director award for Drive, an homage to US crime movies from the 1970s and 1980s.

Israeli director Joseph Cedar won the best screenplay prize for his film Hearat Shulayim (Footnote), about the rivalries between an academic father and son.

French actress-turned-director Maiwenn won the festival's jury prize for Polisse, which threw the spotlight on the daily pressures of a Paris police child-protection unit. In her third film, Maiwenn drew together an impressive cast including Nicolas Duvauchelle, Karin Viard and Jeremie Elkaim to pay tribute to child protection units and their work.

Cannes' Camera d'Or, for best debut feature film, was awarded to Pablo Giorgelli for Las Acacias, which is set in provincial Paraguay.

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