Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” a wild body-horror thriller featuring sex with a car and a surprisingly tender heart, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Ducournau just the second female filmmaker to win the festival’s top honor in its 74 year history. The win on Saturday was mistakenly announced by jury president Spike Lee at the top of the closing ceremony, broadcast in France on Canal+, unleashing a few moments of confusion. Ducournau, a French filmmaker, didn’t come to the stage to accept the award until the formal announcement at the end of the ceremony. But the early hint didn’t diminish from her emotional response. “I’m sorry, I keep shaking my head,” said Ducournau, catching her breath. “Is this real? I don’t know why I’m speaking English right now because I’m French. This evening has been so perfect because it was not perfect.” Read Best Comedy Movies of All Time: Humour in Films through Century After several false starts, Lee implored Sharon Stone to make the Palme d’Or announcement, explaining: “She’s not going to mess it up.” The problems started earlier when Lee was asked to say which prize would be awarded first. Instead, he announced the evening’s final prize, as fellow juror Mati Diop plunged her head into her hands and others rushed to stop him. Lee, himself, spent several moments with his head in his hands before apologizing profusely for taking a lot of the suspense out of the evening. “I have no excuses,” Lee told reporters afterward. “I messed up. I’m a big sports fan. It’s like the guy at the end of the game who misses the free throw.” Read Rehana Maryam Noor is one of the most powerful films from South Asia: Anurag Kashyap “I messed up,” he added. “As simple as that.” Ducournau’s win was a long-awaited triumph. The only previous female filmmaker to win Cannes’ top honor — among the most prestigious awards in cinema — was Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993. In recent years, frustration at Cannes’ gender parity has grown, including in 2018, when 82 women — including Agnes Varda, Cate Blanchett and Salma Hayek — protested gender inequality on the Cannes red carpet. Their number signified the movies by female directors selected to compete for the Palme d’Or — 82 compared to 1,645 films directed by men. This year, four out of 24 films up for the Palme were directed by women. In 2019, another genre film — Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” — took the Palme before going on to win best picture at the Academy Awards, too. That choice was said to be unanimous by the jury led by Alejandro González Iñárritu, but the award for “Titane” — an extremely violent film — this year’s jury said came out of a democratic process of conversation and debate. Juror Maggie Gyllenhaal said they didn’t agree unanimously on anything. Read  ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ Review: The Bangladeshi movie screened in 74th Cannes Film Festival “The world is passion,” said Lee. “Everyone was passionate about a particular film they wanted and we worked it out.” In “Titane,” which like “Parasite” will be distributed in the U.S. by Neon, Agathe Rousselle plays a serial killer who flees home. As a child, a car accident leaves her with a titanium plate in her head and a strange bond with automobiles. In possibly the most-talked-about scene at the festival, she’s impregnated by a Cadillac. Lee called it a singular experience. “This is the first film ever where a Cadillac impregnates a woman,” said Lee, who said he wanted to ask Ducournau what year the car was. “That’s genius and craziness together. Those two things often match up.” Read Azmeri Haque Badhon: Starring the Title Role of 'Rehana Maryam Noor' Film Premiered in 74th Cannes On stage, Ducournau thanked the jury “for letting the monsters in.” Afterward, she acknowledged to reporters her place in history, but also said she “can’t be boiled down to just being a woman.” “Quite frankly, I hope that the prize I received has nothing to do with being a woman,” said Ducournau. “As I’m the second woman to receive this prize, I thought a lot about Jane Campion and how she felt when she won.” More women will come after her, Ducournau said. “There will be a third, there will be a fourth, there will be a fifth.” Read Dilip Kumar: Life History, Success Story of the Legendary Indian Film Star Cannes’ closing ceremony capped 12 days of red-carpet premieres, regular COVID-19 testing for many attendees and the first major film festival to be held since the pandemic began in almost its usual form. With smaller crowds and mandated mask-wearing in theaters, Cannes pushed forward with an ambitious slate of global cinema. Last year’s festival was completely canceled by the pandemic. The slate, assembled as a way to help stir movies after a year where movies shrank to smaller screens and red carpets grew cobwebs, was widely considered to be strong, and featured many leading international filmmakers. The awards were spread out widely. The grand prize was split between Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian drama “A Hero” and Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No. 6.” Read Abdullah Mohammad Saad: The Director of ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ Best director was awarded to Leos Carax for “Annette,” the fantastical musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard that opened the festival. The award was accepted by the musical duo Sparks, Ron and Russell Mael, who wrote the script and music for the film. Jurors also split the jury prize. That was awarded to both Nadav Lapid’s “Ahed’s Knee,” an impassioned drama about creative freedom in modern Isreal; and to Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasthakul’s “Memoria,” a meditative film starring Tilda Swinton. Caleb Landry Jones took home the best actor prize for his performance as an Australian mass killer in the fact-based “Nitram” by Justin Kurzel. Renate Reinsve won best actress for Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World.” Best screenplay went to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” a Haruki Murakami adaptation he penned with Takamasa Oe. Read Asia in Cannes: Spotlight on Asian Movies in 74th Cannes Film Festival The Croatian coming-of-age drama “Murina,” by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, took the Camera d’Or award, a non-jury prize, for best first feature. Kusijanović was absent from the ceremony after giving birth a day earlier. Lee was the first Black jury president at Cannes. His fellow jury members were: Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Song Kang-ho, Tahar Rahim, Mati Diop, Jessica Hausner, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Mylène Farmer. Read Best Movies Preview: The Anticipation on the Run for Cannes Film Festival 2021

The Cannes Film Festival rolled out the red carpet for the first time in more than two years on Tuesday, launching the French Riviera spectacular with the premiere of Leos Carax’s “Annette,” the introduction of Spike Lee’s jury, and with high hopes for shrugging off a punishing pandemic year for cinema. The 74th Cannes opened Tuesday with as much glitz as it could summon, led by “Annette,” a fantastical musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard and scored by the musical duo Sparks. The opening ceremony also returned last year’s Palme d’Or winner, Bong Joon Ho (for “Parasite”) and Jodie Foster, who first came to Cannes as a 13-year-old with Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” for an honorary Palme. The occasion drew a wide spectrum of film luminaries back to Cannes to celebrate the festival, canceled last year due to the COVID-19 virus. Pedro Almodovar, Jessica Chastain, Helen Mirren and Bella Hadid walked the red carpet, which was again lined with tuxedoed photographers and surrounded by eager onlookers. “So it feels good to go out,” said Foster in French. Read:Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar dies “Vivre la France!” declared Lee. The festival was officially declared open by Bong, Almodovar, Foster and Lee, in a mix of Korean, Spanish, French and English. Over the next 10 days, the Cannes Film Festival will try to resuscitate global cinema on a grand scale. Cannes has pushed ahead in much its usual form, with splashy red-carpet displays and a lineup of many of the world’s most revered filmmakers, including Asghar Farhadi, Wes Anderson, Mia Hansen-Love and Paul Verhoeven. Festivalgoers are tested every 48 hours, seated shoulder to shoulder and masked for screenings. Lee, who is heading the jury that will decide this year’s Palme, arrived earlier in the day wearing a “1619” baseball hat and trying to keep a low profile. “I’m not trying to be a hog,” he said to reporters, urging them to ask his fellow jurors questions. But Lee’s presence was hard to ignore. His face as Mars Blackmon from his 1986 feature film debut “She’s Gotta Have It” (which premiered at Cannes) adorns this year’s poster at the festival central hub, the Palais des Festivals. Lee is the first Black person to ever lead Cannes’ prestigious jury. In his first comments, in response to a question from Chaz Ebert, widow of Roger Ebert, Lee spoke about how little has changed since 1989′s “Do the Right Thing” — which made a controversial debut at Cannes. “When you see brother Eric Garner, when you see king George Floyd murdered, lynched, I think of Ray (Radio) Raheem,” Lee said, referring to the “Do the Right Thing” character. After 30-plus years, you’d “think and hope,” Lee said, “that Black people would have stopped being hunted down like animals.” Much of the talk on Tuesday at Cannes centered on injustice and survival. That the festival was even happening, after last year’s edition was canceled, was a surprise to some. Maggie Gyllenhaal, who’ll see the 24 films in competition for the Palme as a member of the jury over the next 12 days, said it will be her first time in a movie theater in 15 months. When “Parasite” actor Song Kang Ho was invited to be a juror, he said, “I thought: Will there really be a festival?” “The fact that we’re here today, it’s really a miracle,” said Song. Read:Bollywood actor Fatima behind Aamir Khan's divorce? Still, much of the usual pomp is toned down this year. There’s a relative dearth of promotion up and down Cannes’ oceanfront promenade, the Croisette, and Hollywood has less of a role than in years past. Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”), a juror, added that in some parts of the world, cinema is under siege. In President Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, he said, the national cinematheque has been closed and its staff dismantled. “This is a very clear demonstration of contempt for cinema and for culture,” said Filho, who noted the tragedy of Brazil reaching 500,000 dead from COVID-19 when, he said, many thousands could have been saved by a stronger governmental response. That conversation was prompted in part by a Georgian journalist who asked jury members about resistance. Russia invaded the former Soviet republic in 2008. “The world is run by gangsters,” said Lee, listing former U.S. President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In that context, the regular topics of concern at Cannes were perhaps dwarfed. But the jurors made passionate cases for the future of movies — and a more inclusive future. This year’s competition lineup includes a Cannes-high four female filmmakers, but they still make up a fraction of the 24 filmmakers vying for the Palme. Read:Asia in Cannes: Spotlight on Asian Movies in 74th Cannes Film Festival “I think when women are listening to themselves and really expressing themselves, even inside, about a very, very male culture, we make movies differently. We tell stories differently,” said Gyllenhaal. She recalled watching Jane Campion’s “The Piano” (the lone film directed by a woman to ever win the Palme) as formative and unfiltered. “It just went in straight.” The rise of streaming also took the spotlight. Cannes has refused to select films without French theatrical distribution for its competition lineup. The festival and Netflix have been at odds for several years. On Monday, Thierry Fremaux, festival director, cited Cannes’ record at discovering filmmakers and asked: “What directors have been discovered by (streaming) platforms?” Lee, who made last year’s “Da 5 Bloods” for Netflix, hardly bated an eye when asked about the subject. “Cinema and screening platforms can coexist,” said Lee, who called Cannes “the world’s greatest film festival.” “At one time, there was a thinking that TV was going to kill cinema. So, this stuff is not new.”

Reflecting on the necessity of global festivals for the betterment of cultural practices, Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said on Sunday that Bangladesh has earned the respect of the world through successfully arranging globally admired cultural rendezvous like Dhaka International Film Festival every year.