Angelopoulos "Eternity" Wins Palme d'Or; 51st Cannes Festival Honors Benigni with Grand Prize and Ma

Angelopoulos "Eternity" Wins Palme d'Or; 51st Cannes Festival Honors Benigni with Grand Prize and Marc Levin's "Slam" with Camera d'Or; Other Winners Also Announced

by Eugene Hernandez

The 1998 Festival International du Film, the Cannes Film Festival, came to a close today (Sunday, May 24th) with the announcement of the Award winners at the 51st Festival.

Theo Angelopoulos' "Mia Eoniotita Ke Mia Mera" (Eternity and a Day) from Greece won the Palme d'Or, the Cannes' top prize.

The Grand Jury Prize was presented to "La Vita e Bella" (Life Is Beautiful), Directed by Italian Roberto Benigni.

Top acting awards were presented to Peter Mullen for his work in "My Name is Joe", directed by Ken Loach from the U.K. While the actress prize was presented to two women, Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Pegnier for their roles in "La Vie Revee des Anges" (Angels' Dream), directed by Erick Zonca from France.

The festival's Award for Best Director went to John Boorman for his Irish film, "The General".

The screenwriting prize went to Hal Hartley for "Henry Fool" from the United States.

The Festival's Jury Prize was presented to two films' Thomas Vinterberg's "Festen" (Celebration) from Denmark and "La Classe de neige" (The Class Trip), directed by Claude Miller from France.

A special jury prize honoring Best Artistic Contribution was presented to the U.S. filmmaker Todd Haynes' for "Velvet Goldmine".

The Camera d'Or, honoring a first film, was presented to Marc Levin's "Slam" which screened in the director's fortnight. The film also won the Grand Jury Prize prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

The Festival's Grand Prize for Technical achievement was awarded to
Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro for his work on Carlos Saura's "Tango".

Finally, the festivals' Palme d'Or for Short film went to Xavier Giannoli's "The Interview".

[A full report from the Closing Night ceremony will be published later this weekend here at indieWIRE.com]