The Palme D’Or (and the rest of the prizes at Cannes) was given out on Sunday and this time around the winner was Laurent Cantet’s “Entre Les Murs” (”The Class”), a story about a teacher teaching in the 20th quarter and the difficulties his students face in terms of French identity. “The docudrama was shot in a raw, improvisational style to chronicle the drama that unfolds over one school year.” [AP] “Based on a best-selling autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau, who plays the main character, The Class is given great life by the performances of the nonprofessional actors playing the students. Mr. Cantet brought them onstage with him to accept the prize, and they brought the entire Palais des Festivals to its feet. [NYTimes]

to listen to a podcast with the director.

The other prizes included the following:

The best director honor went to Nuri Bilge Ceylan for “Three Monkeys,” while Jean Pierre Dardenne & Luc DardenneLe Silence de Lorna received the award for best screenplay for “.” Two competition films from Italy were among the big winners: “Gomorra,” directed by Matteo Garrone won the grand prix runner-up prize and the festival’s jury prize went to “Il Divo,” directed by Paolo Sorrentino. [IndieWire]

On the smaller, non “in competition front”:

Sergey Dvortsevoy’s “Tulpan” won the Prize of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival tonight in France, while Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s “Tokyo Sonata” won the jury prize. Other prize winners include Andreas Dresen’s “Wolke 9” (Heat Throb Jury Prize), James Toback’s “Tyson” (The Knockout of Un Certain Regard) and Jean-Stephane Sauvaire’s “Johnny Mad Dog” (The Prize of Hope). The Un Certain Regard section presented 20 films that were judged by a jury lead by filmmaker Fatih Akin, who offered the statement, “Our mission was to attribute three prizes for Un Certain Regard, but considering the quality and richness of the offerings, and as a testimony of our great enthusiasm, the jury requested of the festival permission to recognize two more films with honors.” [Eugene Hernandez]

Acting awards went to Benicio Del Toro for his work in Che and Sandra Corveloni won the best-actress award for her work in Linha de Passe.

This years Cannes comes at an interesting time for World Cinema in America, as many journalists are being laid off left and right and distributors that distribute the small small small amount of foreign films that come to this country (mainly New York) are coming close to calling it quits. Manohla Dargis and AO Scott have a great little podcast up about their overall feelings on the fest :

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/podcasts/2008/05/24/Cannes_Final.mp3

Also, read on:

• Cannes 2008: The final word
• Fresh faces, activist cinema capture Cannes gold
• ‘The Class’ graduates Cannes with prestigious Palme d’Or