During Cannes Film Festival my favorite discussions between meetings, screenings, red-carpet-hopping, hobnobbing, rosé all day, partying the night away before landing at Le Petit Majestic revolve around the inevitable question, “What’s your Palme?”
The Palme d’Or is the most prestigious award in world cinema. The Academy might think differently, but the Oscars center around Hollywood. It has, however, become more international and diverse by expanding its member base following #OscarsSoWhite, and hence propelled the Palme d’Or winner of 2019, Parasite by Bong Joon Ho, to make Oscar history as the first non-English language film to win best picture as well as the first film to win for both best international film and best picture.
Tonight we watched 3 Faces by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The film was in competition in 2018 and awarded the Prix du scénario, best screenplay. It is a gem that transports you to a faraway place where culture and ways of life are so different from what we know here but a curious and somehow comforting reminder that people everywhere are, well, just people.