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| Ensemble cast for Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight |
British director Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has been announced as the winner of the People’s Choice Audience Award – voted on by those who attended the screenings – in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The film charts the friendship of a group of friends as they are turning 30 in a working class Birmingham neighbourhood and stars Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack and Lola Petticrew. It is adapted by Enda Walsh from the book of the same name by Keiran Goddard.
The director brought her previous films Ava & Ali and The Selfish Giant to the same section. The prize is approximately £6,450.
As the first accolades were announced, Sarah Arnold’s French absurdist crime drama Too Many Beasts won the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film.
The prize provides support from the Europa Cinemas Network, with additional promotion and incentives for exhibitors.
The film stars Alexis Manenti and Ella Rumpf as an unstable cop and a police psychiatrist who ends up investigating a crime spree targeting the local boar population.
The jury said: “Too Many Beasts is a really fresh and original début feature. It is a real genre bender, encompassing action, romance, thriller, comedy, police procedural and even some romance. A big part of its appeal is how the accessible plot consistently takes the audience in totally unexpected directions – and the last 15 minutes is a delicious and crazy psychedelic fueled roller coaster. “It is also a very human film – subtle and not didactic in any way, but it does look at corruption and how communities can come together to find solutions.”
Lila Pinell’s slice-of-life drama Shana won the French writers guild SACD’s Coup de Coeur prize given to the best French-language film in the selection.
