Ruben Ostlund’s ‘The Square’ wins Palme d’Or at Cannes

“The Square”, a Swedish movie about the curator of a museum filled with grotesquely pretentious conceptual art, beat stiff competition to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, Reuters reports. Critics hailed the movie by writerdirector Ruben Ostlund as “highwire cinema” that veers between comedy and thriller.

Sofia Coppola won best director for “The Beguiled”, a remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood tale of sexual tension between an injured soldier in the American Civil War and the women and girls who take him in. Best actress went to Diane Kruger for her performance in German film “In the Fade”, playing a woman trying to put her life back together after her husband and young son are killed in a bomb attack.

It was her first role in her native German. Joaquin Phoenix was named best actor for his portrayal of a psychologically damaged hitman in “You Were Never Really Here.”