'The Lighthouse'

Source: Directors’ Fortnight

‘The Lighthouse’

Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse won the Cannes Film Festival critics’ award for best first or second feature in Directors’ Fortnight and Critics Week. 

Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven won the prize for the best film in competition, whilst Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole won the best film in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

The awards were announced on Saturday (May 25) by the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci).

Terrence Malick’s Cannes competition title, Hidden Life, won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, revealed at the same time.

The Fipresci jury called The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, as “a brutal work of art, all shot in beautiful black-and-white cinematography and fuelled by a soundscape that echoes like a foghorn.” Focus Features are handling international distribution; A24 has North American rights.

It Must Be Heaven was described as a “typically deadpan travelogue” in Screen’s review. Wild Bunch are handling international sales.

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