Son of Saul, Masaan win Fipresci Ahead of Palme

The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) gave out their top awards to Son of Saul, probably the most buzzed film of the festival, and to Masaan. It is not unheard of for a film to win both this prize and the Palme d’or. Blue is the Warmest Color swept Cannes, winning both, only to then deflate somewhat once it played elsewhere. That was a good example of how things that happen in Cannes can sometimes stay in Cannes. On the other hand, Son of Saul is not loaded with the same kind of controversy nor hype. It should have staying power on through to the Oscars, being that it’s about the Holocaust and all.

Son of Saul by Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes is about the Jews who helped the Nazis in concentration camps. Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan is about the way “four lives intersect along the Ganges: a low caste boy in hopeless love, a daughter ridden with guilt of a sexual encounter ending in a tragedy, a hapless father with fading morality, and a spirited child yearning for a family, long to escape the moral constructs of a small-town.”