2012 Cannes Film Festival

The 65th Cannes Film Festival was held from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian film director Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition and British actor Tim Roth was the president of the jury for the Un Certain Regard section. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.

The festival Opening Film was Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. And the Closing Film was Claude Miller's final movie Thérèse Desqueyroux. The main announcement of the line-up took place on 19 April. The official poster of the festival features Marilyn Monroe, to mark the 50th anniversary of her death.

The Palme d'Or was awarded to Austrian director Michael Haneke for his film Amour. Haneke had won the Palme in 2009 for The White Ribbon. The jury awarded the Grand Prix to Matteo Garrone's Reality, while Ken Loach's The Angels' Share received the Jury Prize.

Μain competition
The following people were appointed as the Jury for the feature films of the 2012 Official Selection:
 * Nanni Moretti, Italian filmmaker - Jury President
 * Hiam Abbass, Palestinian actress and director
 * Andrea Arnold, English filmmaker
 * Emmanuelle Devos, French actress
 * Jean Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer
 * Diane Kruger, German actress
 * Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
 * Alexander Payne, American filmmaker
 * Raoul Peck, Haitian filmmaker

Un Certain Regard

 * Tim Roth, British actor - Jury President
 * Leïla Bekhti, French actress
 * Tonie Marshall, French actress and filmmaker
 * Luciano Monteagudo, Argentine film critic
 * Sylvie Pras, French chief of the Pompidou Centre and artistic director of the Festival de la Fiction at La Rochelle

Caméra d'Or

 * Carlos Diegues, Brazilian filmmaker - Jury President
 * Michel Andrieu, French filmmaker
 * Rémy Chevrin, French cinematographer
 * Francis Gavelle, French film critic
 * Hervé Icovic, French art director
 * Gloria Satta, Italian film journalist

Cinéfoundation and short films

 * Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgian filmmaker - Jury President
 * Karim Aïnouz, Brazilian filmmaker
 * Emmanuel Carrère, French novelist and filmmaker
 * Arsinée Khanjian, Canadian actress
 * Yu Lik-wai, Chinese cinematographer and director

Independent juries
The following independent juries awarded films in the frame of the Critics' Week.

Nespresso Grand Prize
 * Bertrand Bonello, French filmmaker - Jury President
 * Francisco Ferreira, Portuguese film critic
 * Akiko Kobari, Japanese film and dance critic
 * Robert Koehler, American film critic
 * Hanns-Georg Rodek, German film critic

France 4 Visionary Award
 * Céline Sciamma, French filmmaker - Jury President
 * Victor-Emmanuel Boinem, Belgian film student and blogger
 * Ryan Lattanzio, American student and lead film critic at The Daily Californian
 * Bikas Mishra, Indian founder and editor of DearCinema.com
 * Kim Seehe, South Korean student and film critic

Nikon Discovery Award for Short Film
 * João Pedro Rodrigues, Portuguese film director - Jury President
 * Jakub Felcman, Czech film curator
 * Marianne Khoury, Egyptian film director and producer
 * Danny Lennon, Canadian film curator
 * Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazilian film director, curator, and critic

Official Selection
The official selection was announced on 19 April at Grand Hôtel in Paris. Among comments after the announcement, journalists noted the unusually high number of Hollywood films in the line-up, the absence of any female director in the main competition, as well as the absence of competing first-time feature film directors. The festival's artistic leader Thierry Frémaux responded that people should not focus only on the competition films: "The selection is an ensemble; you have to consider the whole package."

In Competition
The following films were selected as In Competition. The Palme d'Or winner has been highlighted :


 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Un Certain Regard
The following films were screened in the Un Certain Regard section. The Un Certain Regard Prize winner has been highlighted :


 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Out of Competition
The following films were screened out of competition:


 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Special Screenings
The following films were screened in the Special Screenings section:


 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Cinéfondation
The Cinéfondation section focuses on films made by students at film schools. The following entries were selected, out of more than 1,700 submissions from 320 different schools. The winner of the Cinéfondation First Prize has been highlighted :

Short film Competition
Out of 4,500 submissions, the following films were selected for the short film competition. The Short film Palme d'Or winner has been highlighted.

Cannes Classics
The following films were screened in the Cannes Classics section. The Hungarian "montage film" Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen, directed by György Pálfi, was selected as the closing film for the Cannes Classics section.

Cinéma de la Plage
The Cinéma de la Plage is a part of the Official Selection of the festival. The outdoors screenings at the beach cinema of Cannes are open to the public.

Critics' Week
The line-up for the Critics' Week was announced on 23 April at the section's website. The feature competition consists entirely of directorial debuts, something the section's artistic director Charles Tesson stressed was not intentional, but only the way it turned out when the submissions had been judged by quality. The following films were selected.

Feature films - The winner of the Grand Prix Nespresso has been highlighted:
 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Short and Medium Length Films

Special Screenings

Directors' Fortnight
The line-up for the Directors' Fortnight was announced at a press conference on 24 April. The following films were selected:

Feature Films - The winner of the Art Cinema Award has been highlighted :
 *  (CdO)  indicates film eligible for the Caméra d'Or as directorial debut feature.

Short Films - The winner of the Premier Prix Illy for Short Filmmaking has been highlighted :

Official Awards
The Palme d'Or was won by the French-language film Amour directed by Michael Haneke. Haneke previously won the award for The White Ribbon in 2009. Love tells the story of an elderly couple preparing for death. During his acceptance speech, the director said "A very, very big thanks to my actors who have made this film. It's their film. They are the essence of this film."

Moretti said that none of the winners had been selected unanimously, and described such an outcome as "a middle ground that would have pleased no one". He revealed that Holy Motors, Paradise: Love and Post Tenebras Lux were the entries that most had divided the jury.

The following films and people received the 2012 Official selection awards:

In Competition

 * Palme d'Or: Amour by Michael Haneke
 * Grand Prix: Reality by Matteo Garrone
 * Best Director: Carlos Reygadas for Post Tenebras Lux
 * Best Screenplay: Beyond the Hills by Cristian Mungiu
 * Best Actress: Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan for Beyond the Hills
 * Best Actor: Mads Mikkelsen for The Hunt
 * Jury Prize: The Angels' Share by Ken Loach

Un Certain Regard

 * Prix Un Certain Regard: Después de Lucía by Michel Franco
 * Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize: Le grand soir by Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
 * Un Certain Regard Special Distinction: Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begić
 * Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress:
 * Émilie Dequenne in Loving Without Reason
 * Suzanne Clément in Laurence Anyways

Caméra d'Or

 * Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin

Cinéfondation

 * 1st Prize: The Road to by Taisia Igumentseva
 * 2nd Prize: Abigail by Matthew James Reilly
 * 3rd Prize: The Hosts by Miguel Angel Moulet

Short Films Competition

 * Short Film Palme d'Or: Silent by L. Rezan Yesilbas

FIPRESCI Prizes

 * In the Fog by Sergei Loznitsa (In Competition)
 * Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin (Un Certain Regard)
 * Hold Back by Rachid Djaïdani (Directors' Fortnight)

Vulcan Award of the Technical Artist

 * Vulcan Award: Charlotte Bruus Christensen (cinematography) for The Hunt

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

 * The Hunt by Thomas Vinterberg
 * Special Mention: Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin

Critics' Week

 * Grand Prix Nespresso: Aquí y allá by Antonio Méndez Esparza
 * France 4 Visionary Award: Sofia's Last Ambulance by Ilian Metev
 * Prix SACD: God's Neighbors by Meni Yaesh
 * ACID/CCAS Prize: The Wild Ones by Alejandro Fadel

Directors' Fortnight

 * Art Cinema Award: No by Pablo Larraín
 * Europa Cinemas: The Repentant by Merzak Allouache
 * Prix SACD: Camille Rewinds by Noémie Lvovsky
 * Special mention Prix SACD: Ernest & Celestine by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner
 * Premier Prix Illy for Short Filmmaking: The Curse by Fyzal Boulifa
 * Special mention Prix Illy: The Living Also Cry by Basil da Cunha

Prize of the Youth Jury

 * Prix de la Jeunesse: Holy Motors by Leos Carax
 * Prix Regard Jeune: Beasts of the Southern Wild by Benh Zeitlin

Prix François Chalais

 * Horses of God by Nabil Ayouch

Queer Palm

 * Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan
 * Best Short Film: It's Not a Cowboy Movie by Benjamin Parent

Palm Dog Jury

 * Palm Dog Award: Smurf in Sightseers
 * Grand Jury Prize: Billy Bob in Le grand soir