'Blue is the Warmest Color' is Cannes' Palme d'Or

“Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele”, a lesbian love story by Franco-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, won the Palme d'Or for best picture at the 66th Cannes Film Festival Sunday.
Announcing the winner, jury president Steven Spielberg said the jury had decided to exceptionally award the prize not only to Kechiche but also to the film’s two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux.
 “Blue is the Warmest Colour” was the critics’ choice among the 20 films competing for one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes.
It contains some of the lengthiest, most graphic lesbian sex scenes ever seen in a mainstream film, while exuding extraordinary empathy towards the two young lovers played by Exarchopoulos and Seydoux.
“The film had a beautiful French youth that I discovered during the long time filming the movie,” said Kechiche at the festival closing ceremony Sunday. “It taught me a lot about the spirit of freedom.” 
“I would like to dedicate this award and this film to the wonderful French youth I met while working on this film,” Kechiche said, accepting the prize together with the actresses.
He also dedicated the award to the 2011 revolution in his native Tunisia, which led the Arab Spring uprisings.
“They also have this aspiration to live freely, to express themselves freely and love in full freedom,” Kechiche, 52, said.


Main prize-winners at the 66th Cannes Film Festival

Palme d'Or: “Blue is the Warmest Colour”, Abdellatif Kechiche

Best Director: Amat Escalante, “Heli”

Best Actress: Berenice Bejo in “The Past” by Asghar Farhadi

Best Actor: Bruce Dern in “Nebraska” by Alexander Payne

Best Screenplay: Jia Zhangke for “A Touch of Sin”

Grand Prix (runner-up to Palme d'Or): “Inside Llewyn Davis”, by Joel and Ethan Coen

Jury Prize: “Like Father Like Son”, by Hirokazu Koreeda