‘The Square’ won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (28.05.17).
The Ruben Ostlund-directed satire movie was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 70th edition of the festival on the French Riviera, seeing off competition from 18 rival movies to claim the coveted gong.
‘The Square’, which stars Claes Bang, Dominic West and Elisabeth Moss, was not expected to win the main prize in Cannes – but Ruben admitted the accolade has made his hard work seem worthwhile.
He said, according to the BBC: "I think my first reaction was ‘oh my God, how fantastic’. I mean I hugged the main actor that I’ve been working with almost for two years now.
"We have been struggling together and it was a very, very happy ending of that work of course."
The movie centres on Claes’ character Christian, who runs a gallery that is preparing to stage a new exhibition.
However, while he is trying to organise the exhibition, Christian is mugged and he tries to recover his possessions in an unusual way.
Elsewhere, British filmmaker Lynne Ramsay was named the joint winner of best screenplay for ‘You Were Never Really Here’, while Hollywood star Joaquin Phoenix scooped the Best Actor gong.
Meanwhile, Sofia Coppola – who has previously helmed hits such as ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and ‘Lost in Translation’ – won the Best Director prize for ‘The Beguiled’.
The drama movie tells the story of an injured soldier who is taken in by a girls’ boarding school during the civil war in America.
‘The Beguiled’ stars Australian actress Nicole Kidman and she was given a 70th anniversary award in recognition of having three films and one TV series shown at the festival.
Cannes Film Festival 2017 winners:
Palme d’Or:
‘The Square’
Grand Prix:
‘BPM’ (Beats per Minute)
Jury prize:
Andrey Zvyagintsev, ‘Loveless’
70th anniversary award:
Nicole Kidman
Best director:
Sofia Coppola, ‘The Beguiled’
Best actress:
Diane Kruger, ‘In the Fade’
Best actor:
Joaquin Phoenix, ‘You Were Never Really Here’
Best screenplay:
Joint winners Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’, and Lynne Ramsay, ‘You Were Never Really Here’
Camera d’Or:
Leonor Serraille, ‘Jeune Femme’
Short film prize:
Qiu Yang, ‘A Gentle Night’