Cannes 2025: Chilean AIDS drama ‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’ wins Un Certain Regard whereas India’s ‘Homebound’ leaves empty-handed-OxBig News Network

Paula Dinamarca, Tamara Cortés, Matías Catalán, Diego Céspedes, Pedro Muñoz and Francisco Díaz through the ‘La Misteriosa Mirada Del Flamenco’ (‘The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo’) photocall on the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Chilean director Diego Céspedes’ debut characteristic The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo has received the highest award within the Un Certain Regard part on the 77th Cannes Film Festival, edging out a number of high-profile contenders. The character-driven drama set in a transgender commune through the early years of the AIDS epidemic in Nineteen Eighties Chile, was praised by the jury for its daring and unconventional storytelling.

The jury, chaired by British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker, described the movie as “raw and powerful and yet funny and wild.” Céspedes, receiving the award, stated the movie was impressed by “all the angry lovers who just wanted to love like everybody else.”

The Un Certain Regard part featured three debut works by well-known actors-turned-directors this yr: Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great), and Harris Dickinson (Urchin). None of the three walked away with a prize, with the jury opting as a substitute for rising voices from Latin America and the Middle East.

The Jury Prize, the second-highest honor within the part, went to A Poet, directed by Colombia’s Simón Mesa Soto. The movie facilities on a struggling poetry trainer and his misguided try to mentor a working-class teenage prodigy. Mesa Soto devoted the award to fellow filmmakers, calling filmmaking “a hard job” and stressing the problem of constructing artwork below unsure circumstances.

Guest, Manuel Ruiz Montealegre, Simón Mesa Soto, Ubeimar Rios and Juan Sarmiento Grisales and Katharina Bergfeld pose through the ‘Un Poeta’ (‘A Poet’) photocall on the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals
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Getty Images

Best Director went to Palestinian twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser for Once Upon a Time in Gaza, which portrays two younger males navigating life within the Gaza Strip in 2007. The brothers used their acceptance speech to focus on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, relaying a message from their mom urging them to attend Cannes and “tell them to stop the genocide.” They devoted their award to Palestinians.

Directors Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser pose throughout a photocall for the movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’ on the 78th Cannes Film Festival
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS

Actor Cléo Diara received a efficiency award for her position in Portuguese director Pedro Pinho’s three-and-a-half-hour movie I Only Rest within the Storm, which explores the postcolonial legacy of Portugal by means of the lens of a multi-generational household. In her speech, Diara made a direct assertion in assist of Palestinian rights and likewise spoke towards political developments in Portugal, the place a brand new right-wing authorities just lately took workplace.

Cleo Diara poses for photographers on the photograph name for the movie ‘I Only Rest in the Storm’ on the 78th Cannes Film Festival
| Photo Credit:
AP

British actor Frank Dillane received a efficiency award for his position in Urchin, Harris Dickinson’s social-realist movie a couple of homeless addict. Dillane saved his remarks quick, expressing gratitude for the chance to inform tales about individuals residing on the margins of society.

Frank Dillane poses throughout a photocall for ‘Urchin’ on the 78th Cannes Film Festival
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS

Harry Lighton of the UK received Best Screenplay for Pillion, a drama exploring a dom-sub relationship between two bikers. In his speech, Lighton thanked the kink neighborhood for permitting the story to be advised with respect and humor. He additionally acknowledged his producers for discouraging a last-minute concept to relocate the movie’s setting to Ancient Rome.

Writer and director Harry Lighton, solid members Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling pose throughout a photocall for ‘Pillion’ on the 78th Cannes Film Festival
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS

India’s solely entry within the Un Certain Regard part, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, didn’t obtain any awards. The movie premiered to a nine-minute standing ovation earlier within the week.

Homebound was seen as a possible contender, particularly given the backing of each Bollywood producer Karan Johar and government producer Martin Scorsese. Ghaywan had beforehand received acclaim at Cannes in 2015 with Masaan, which earned the FIPRESCI and Promising Future awards.

Despite lacking out on a prize, Homebound acquired robust crucial response, and its presence at Cannes will possible transalte to potential award season rivalry later within the yr, à la Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light.