/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/ZLXFDVRJBFM75LGTIDDX7U62BA.jpg)
[1/3] The 76th Cannes Film Festival – Photocall for the film ‘How to Have Sex’ in competition for the Un Certain Regard category – Cannes, France, May 19, 2023. Director Molly Manning Walker and cast members Mia McKenna- Bruce, Lara Peake, Laura Ambler, Enva Lewis, Shaun Thomas and Samuel Bottomley…
CANNES, May 26 (Reuters) – The provocatively titled film “How to Have Sex”, about three British teenage girls who go on holiday with the aim of drinking, clubbing and flirting, won first prize in “Un Certain Regard “. competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday.
However, there was a small setback: Molly Manning Walker was not in the room when the award for her debut feature was announced. The director was returning from Italy and was late for the airport, prompting the foreman of the jury, John C. Reilly, to sing a song to distract the audience during the wait.
“I just ran here from Italy guys,” said the British director, who was out of breath when she finally took the stage in a T-shirt and running shorts.
Manning Walker has said that he wanted to make a film from the point of view of girls and that he hopes the film can start a larger conversation about consent and what good sex is.
The Hollywood Reporter summed up the “surprising” film as “a silent marvel”, while The Guardian newspaper gave it four out of five stars, calling it “an interesting, unsentimental film, without the coming-of-age clichés”.
Kamal Lazraq’s “Hounds,” about a father and son in Casablanca who have to deal with a kidnapping gone wrong, took the jury prize.
The first Sudanese film to be included in the official Cannes selection, “Goodbye Julia”, won the freedom prize.
Director Mohamed Kordofani thanked the Sudanese people for their support and for not giving up. “In the worst moment of my country, I am extremely proud to be a Sudanese,” he said.
“The Buriti Flower,” which follows the indigenous Kraho people in the heart of the Brazilian jungle, won the ensemble award for directors Joao Salaviza and Renee Nader Messora.
“We want to thank, remember and honor all the spirits of the indigenous people whose lives were cut short by massacres across our damned continent,” Nader Messora said Friday.
“Un Certain Regard” is a competition focused on auteur films that runs in parallel to the main competition, the Palme d’Or, which will be announced on Saturday.
Reporting by Hanna Rantala, Writing by Miranda Murray; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
