Cannes Joy Division And Romanian Drama Scoops Top Prizes.... The Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday (27May07).The drama, which explores issues of abortion and repression in 1980s communist Romania, beat competition from Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights, and The Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men to win the prestigious award.Accepting the prize, director Cristian Mungiu said, "This story, in which we believe so much, is going to reach lots of people now."I also hope that this award that I am getting tonight is going to be good news for small film-makers from small countries because it looks like you don't necessarily need a big budget and a lot of stars."The jury, headed by British director Stephen Frears, awarded two jury prizes to Persepolis, a film about a young woman growing up during the Iranian revolution, and Silent Light, which explores a husband's infidelity in a Mennonite community based in Mexico.Meanwhile, former Palme d'Or winner Van Sant received the 60th Anniversary Prize for Paranoid Park, while Julian Schnabel was honoured with the Best Director gong for The Diving Bell and Butterfly.In more from Cannes low-budget British film about the late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis has won the Best European Film award at this year's (07) Cannes Film Festival.The film, entitled Control, was directed by famed Dutch still and music video photographer Anton Corbijn and stars former warehouse worker Sam Riley as troubled Curtis in the years leading up to his suicide in 1980.

On granting the award the Cannes jury said, "This is a very impressive and assured debut from a renowned photographer, but he never allows the look of the film, beautiful though it is, to detract from the powerful story and character development.

"The performances are all excellent, not just the leading characters.

We feel that this is a film that will strike a real chord with audiences around Europe, and not just with music lovers.".

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