‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' Wins Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2025
Ahead of the 2025 awards ceremony on Saturday, May 24, the festival has announced the winners for the Un Certain Regard section, with the top prize going to 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.' A co-production between Chile, France, Belgium, Spain, and Germany, the 1980s-set drama marks the feature directorial debut of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes.
The Best Screenplay award for the Un Certain Regard section went to Harry Lighton for his feature directorial debut, A24's 'Pillion,' starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård. In his Critic's Pick review out of Cannes, IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio said of the film, 'Dick-sucking, boot-licking, and ball-gagging are de rigueur for a movie like writer/director Harry Lighton's wildly graphic and strangely moving BDSM romance, 'Pillion.' But for a British queer film that puts the particulars of a gay dominant-submissive affair (or arrangement, better yet) up front and up close, actors Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling find the sweet center of a story marked by clamps, cages, and assless unitards.'
More from IndieWire
These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns
Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes
Simón Mesa Soto's 'A Poet,' another IndieWire Critic's Pick, went on to win the Jury Prize. Ben Croll wrote of the film, 'Split into four chapters and filmed on grainy, 16mm stock that leaves a mask of schmutz around the corners of the frame, 'A Poet' loops around questions of art and commerce in an endearingly loopy tone. The film's bawdy sense of humor plays off a non-professional star — himself a full-time teacher from a nearby school — that looks like he was drawn by Robert Crumb and acts the part just as well.'
'Urchin' star Frank Dillane shared the performance award with Cléo Diara for the Portuguese postcolonial drama 'I Only Rest in the Storm.' Dillane, who stars in 'Urchin' as a homeless London man succumbing to addiction, will end up in the fall awards conversation stateside if Harris Dickinson's debut finds the right distributor. 'I Only Rest in the Storm' is also looking for a buyer, as are 'Flamingo,' 'A Poet,' and Palestine's well-reviewed 'Once Upon a Time in Taza.'
Yet to be announced is the Camera d'Or, the overall prize for the best first feature, which encompasses films throughout the official selection including Un Certain Regard. Candidates for this award still include Dickinson for 'Urchin' as well as Scarlett Johansson's 'Eleanor the Great' and Kristen Stewart's 'The Chronology of Water.' The Johansson and Stewart films didn't win any Un Certain Regard awards on Friday, but that doesn't eliminate them from potentially receiving the Camera d'Or on Saturday.
Read the full list of winners for the Un Certain Regard section below.
Prix Un Certain Regard: 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,' Diego Céspedes
Jury Prize: 'A Poet,' Simón Mesa Soto
Best Screenplay: Harry Lighton, 'Pillion'
Best Performance: Cléo Diara, 'I Only Rest in the Storm' and Frank Dillane, 'Urchin'
Best Director: Tarzan and Arab Nasser, 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza'
Ryan Lattanzio contributed reporting.
Best of IndieWire
2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards?
2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
‘Jaws @ 50' Gives Longtime Spielberg Historian Laurent Bouzereau Final Word On The Original Summer Blockbuster
Steven Spielberg, Director of Jaws and Director Laurent Bouzereau are pictured during an interview ... More for National Geographic's Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story. What can be said about Jaws that hasn't been said over the last 50 years? That was the big question for longtime Steven Spielberg documentarian Laurent Bouzereau (Faye, Music By John Williams) once he teamed up with Amblin and National Geographic to make Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, a star-studded look back at the original summer blockbuster, featuring brand-new interviews with Spielberg, screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, production designer Joe Alves, and many more. 'When we set it up at NatGeo I was like, 'Oh my God, there are so many documentaries on Jaws!' [There are so many] books. [Even] I've done a book! What is left to say about Jaws?'' Bouzereau remembers over Zoom. A valid fear. As one of the most iconic and influential movies of all time, the big screen adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel has endlessly been picked over and analyzed since it first took a bite out of the big screen on June 20, 1975. But if anyone could pull off a new angle, it was Bouzereau, who is not only chummy with Spielberg (no pun intended), but also brings a uniquely international perspective to the topic. 'I grew up in France, and we didn't have summer blockbusters,' he explains. 'It's changed now, but essentially, big movies came out in the fall or the early fall. So I didn't really grow up with that concept of the summer blockbuster.' He wouldn't become familiar with the idea until arriving in the United States for the first time in 1977, the year of a certain game-changing space opera. One of the first things Bouzereau saw upon entering the airport in Athens, Georgia was an issue of People with R2-D2 and C-3PO on the front cover. 'I said, 'What's that? I want to see that!' So that's summer blockbuster [for me], it's People magazine. I think it established a certain type of expectation of big films … [Jaws] certainly gave birth to a much bigger recognition of the impact that a film can have on an audience and how the audience wants to live it [with] merchandising, books, and knowing the secrets behind them. Building a whole mythology around a cinematic experience, down to having a [theme] park ride. Jaws is beginning of that movement, which, of course, explodes even bigger with Star Wars." Nevertheless, Jaws (or Les Dents de la Mer — aka The Teeth of the Sea — as it was titled in French) sparked a major cinematic 'awakening' in the future filmmaker, who was around 13-years-old in the summer of '75. 'It was such a phenomenon, that it immediately [drove home] the importance of the director for me,' Bouzereau says. 'From that day on, I wanted to see everything Steven Spielberg ever made, and that name became symbolic of a dream for me, much more than the film itself. It was the realization of the power of images in the hands of an incredible artist … I was mesmerized by the shots and, of course, the economy of the first scene where you never see the shark and [hear] the music by John Williams. So everything was sort of summarized in that one movie, not to mention that I collected all the lobby cards and poster. My bedroom was wall-to-wall Jaws. But it was not a fanatical thing. It was really an awakening for me as an appreciator and it never left me. Sometimes, I go back to that initiation I got from Jaws as a young kid and remember those feelings of the very first time [I saw it]. It's like a first of anything." Half a century later, and Bouzereau found himself sitting across from Spielberg, free to ask any and all questions about the movie that changed both their lives. Rather than focus on the making of Jaws, a topic that had been covered so extensively over the years, the former angled for a thematic exploration of the classic picture, viewing its turbulent production as a reflection of the plot itself. Like Brody (Roy Scheider), Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and Quint (Robert Shaw) searching for and battling the man-eating shark, principal photography 'became a story of survival," Bouzereau notes, later adding, 'I think it's about not giving up. It's the human experience, right?' He continues: "The first time I sat down with Steven, I felt the humanity that we know from anything he's done — before Jaws and after. He was so young then, that it was still forming in a sense. But it was so mature and so much of it was there, that you can look at Jaws and say, 'That's the man who did Schindler's List years later,' and not blink at that association because his humanity is just so obvious. Not only in the story and the way that he put it together, but in his own journey as an artist making it, what he's learned from it, and how it affected him. I felt that story had not been told.' Director Steven Spielberg on the set of Jaws with the mechanical shark in the background. (Courtesy ... More of Universal Studios Licensing LLC) While the film's runaway success skyrocketed the 26-year-old wunderkind to the top of Hollywood's A-list pretty much overnight, Spielberg understandably did not recover from the trauma of a production marked by one setback after another (the most notable obstacle being an animatronic shark that refused to cooperate in salty water) for years after. Such commitment to realism, a fierce desire to shoot on the Atlantic and work the local Martha's Vineyard populace into the frame, proved to be a double-edged sword. 'A few years before, Jaws would have been made on a soundstage with local background artists who were just coming off the set of another movie,' Bouzereau says. 'There would have been no sort of colorful characters like Craig Kingsbury [who played the ill-fated Ben Gardner] from Martha's Vineyard. Going there and realizing that Jaws is something that is passed on generation after generation on that particular island —that's a microcosm of what the impact of Jaws is.' But as Spielberg reveals in the documentary, he'd often sneak aboard the screen-used Orca on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot tour and cry. 'Everybody knows it was a nightmare, but they all say it with laugh, because we can laugh at the fact that here is one of the best movies of all time,' Bouzereau adds. 'It could have been a disaster, but I think [Steven] said it with heart and humility in a truly inspiring way that I think feels relatable for anyone, especially young people who are starting a career in anything, and feel like, 'Wow, I just learned that from my own craft.'' Speaking of which, Jaws @ 50 devotes a good amount of attention to the acclaimed storytellers who, like Bouzereau, grew up to be directors after seeing Jaws: Guillermo del Toro, J.J. Abrams, Cameron Crowe, Jordan Peele, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Zemeckis, and James Cameron. 'To really see the impact it had on some of the most important filmmakers of our times, to see the the lessons that they got from Jaws, was was eye-opening to me," admits Bouzereau. 'Because it wasn't just, 'Oh, I love the movie. It scared me.' You know, the usual sound bites. It was a very profound and big discovery for me. I also think the other aspect of the film that I had not really known about, even though it was in plain sight, was how it affected the ocean and [led to] sharks being massacred … The fascination with this novel and this movie have changed the dialogue about the ocean. I don't know if there are many movies that have had that kind of social impact. "Very few works of art turn 50 and are relevant today. I don't have any children, but I have nieces and nephews, and I have forced them to watch Jaws, and now they're forcing their kids to watch it. So it's something that's passed on, and it's pretty extraordinary to see that 50 years later. Listen, I asked myself a lot of questions if I was still relevant when I turned 50. Jaws doesn't have that problem.' 'Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story' Jaws @ 50 premieres exclusively on Disney+ and Hulu Thursday, July 10
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
You Only Get Married a Few Times. Why Not Go All Out?
They were one of the world's most famous couples, their future sealed when he renounced his throne for her and she renounced her husband for him. But so much disapproval surrounded the audacious affair between King Edward VIII of England and the American socialite Wallis Simpson that their eventual marriage, before a handful of guests in France in 1937, felt more like a perp walk than a wedding. 'It was a sad little service,' Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, a wedding guest known as 'Baba Blackshirt' because of her reputed Nazi sympathies, wrote in her journal. 'It could be nothing but pitiable and tragic to see a King of England of only six months ago, an idolized King, married under these circumstances.' It seems quaint to remember the days when second weddings were typically quiet and modest affairs, especially after a bit of adultery. Perhaps there was a sense that everyone was allowed just one public spectacle-style wedding in a lifetime. Maybe it was considered indecorous to declare 'til death do us part' once again, when death had clearly not parted you the first time you said it. That's why former monarchs fled to France and commoners had small, tasteful celebrations, perhaps at City Hall, the brides wearing outfits like 'a gray suit and a pillbox hat,' as the high-end event planner Bryan Rafanelli described it in an interview. In contrast, let us consider the 2025 version of a royal wedding: the forthcoming marriage in Venice between Jeff Bezos, the billionaire king of Amazon, and the ex-TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez. Having entered public consciousness when their racy texts were leaked to the tabloids during their previous marriages, their relationship — buoyed and insulated by Mr. Bezos' estimated $228 billion fortune — has always had the feel of an extended P.D.A. victory lap. Depending on what you read, the wedding will cost $15 million, or $20 million. Or maybe it will be scaled back to under $10 million because of the couple's supposed decision to be 'less 'Marie Antoinette'' after the Blue Origin spaceflight this spring featuring Ms. Sánchez and a group of her famous female friends. The 11-minute mission suffered from a bit of a P.R. problem when the women donned sexy space outfits, discussed their extraterrestrial makeup routines and, in the case of Katy Perry, declared the intention to 'put the 'ass' in astronaut.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
U2's Frontman Scores His First Rap Hit Alongside A Hip-Hop Legend
Lil Wayne's 'The Days' featuring Bono debuts at No. 21 on the Hot Rap Songs chart, marking the U2 ... More singer's first-ever appearance on the tally. CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 17: Bono during the "Bono: Stories Of Surrender" photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by) Lil Wayne invades Billboard's Hot Rap Songs chart this week with tunes from his new album, Tha Carter VI. The hip-hop superstar is no stranger to appearing on the tally, which ranks the most consumed rap tracks throughout the United States — especially whenever fans flock to one project or another all at once. Wayne is joined on several tracks by a handful of collaborators, including one who has never scored a rap hit in America before: Bono. The U2 frontman appears on Wayne's tune 'The Days,' featured on Tha Carter VI, which earns him something of a surprise win. 'The Days' opens at No. 21 on the Hot Rap Songs chart this frame. Unsurprisingly, Bono collects his first win on the genre-specific list, as he's not exactly known for his output in the rap space. While his featured guest spot on 'The Days' may bring Bono to the Hot Rap Songs ranking for the first time, Wayne has already collected triple-digit placements on the roster. With a slew of new arrivals this week, the powerhouse rapper ups his career total to 125 appearances on the Hot Rap Songs chart. That roundup includes 59 top 10s and a dozen No. 1s. He adds to his array of top 10 smashes this week, though he doesn't quite manage to lead the charge. 'The Days' earns the tenth loftiest debut on the Hot Rap Songs chart, with many of the tunes that open above it coming from Wayne's Tha Carter VI, while GloRilla's 'Typa' also breaks in at No. 6. Nearly half of all 25 spaces on the tally this time around are filled by debuts — and all but one are by Wayne. Bono earns his first career hit as a soloist on the Hot Rap Songs chart and his second honor on a related list, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally. 'The Days' opens at No. 29 on that roster, marking his return to the ranking for the first time in a quarter-century. The U2 singer-songwriter first reached the chart of the most popular R&B, hip-hop, and rap tracks with 'Lean on Me,' a collaboration by Kirk Franklin that also credited Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, Crystal Lewis and the Family. That tune peaked at No. 26 in early 1999. 'The Days' also opens on the Bubbling Under Hot 100, which serves as an extension of the main Hot 100 for tunes that didn't quite break onto the most competitive ranking. Bono and Wayne start their collaboration at No. 12 on that list, missing the Hot 100 by a relatively small number of spots.
