Molly Manning Walker’s Escape from the Cannes Festival How to have sex has won Best Picture in the 2023 Un Certain Regard sidebar. The stunning debut, which follows three British teenagers on a summer holiday in Greece that goes dark, was The Hollywood Reporter‘s hidden gem choose this Cannes and was one of the most talked about films on the Croisette this year.
Four African films also went home Friday night at the Un Certain Regard ceremony. Asmae El Moudir won the Best Director award from Un Certain Regard for her hybrid documentary, The mother of all liesa search for the truth behind her family’s stories about the bread riots in Morocco in 1981. Kamal Lazraq won the Un Certain Regard jury prize for Hounds, a crime drama set in the suburbs of Casablanca. Omen, the directorial debut of Belgian-Congolese hip-hop artist Baloji, won the new voting award for best first feature film. Sudanese drama Goodbye Julia by director Mohamed Kordofani — yet another debut — won the Un Certain Regard freedom prize. African cinema, often overlooked or ignored at Cannes, has taken pride of place at this year’s festival, with a record number of films in the official line-up.
The Un Certain Regard award for best ensemble went to the Brazilian drama The Buriti flower by Joao Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film traces the history of the indigenous Krahô tribe and their decades-long struggle for land rights.
The American actor John C. Reilly chaired this year’s jury of Un Certain Regard, which also includes French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne had a seat.
