Terrence Malick’s Movie With Brad Pitt Wins Top Prize in Cannes

(HMG Celebrity News) -  Director Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, the ambitious, generation-spanning film starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, wasn’t well received by many viewers and critics.  But at the close of the 64th Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, the jury including Jude Law and Uma Thurman awarded the top prize the Palme d’Or, which was announced by Jury president Robert De Niro to The Tree of Life as best movie.  American director Malick, whose previous films include “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line” and “The New World” tries to stay out of the limelight and skipped all public events at Cannes. The Palme d’Or award was accepted Sunday by two “Tree of Life” producers.

Other winners Sunday evening included French actor Jean Dujardin, who was named best actor for a popular silent, black-and-white comedy, The Artist – to be seen in the U.S. later this year.
Kirsten Dunst as best actress for controversial director Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia. Earlier this week, the Danish filmmaker had been banned from the festival for rambling remarks he made at a press conference about how he sympathized with Hitler.  Best director was Nicolas Winding Refn, for Drive, which stars Ryan Gosling.  The award for best first feature, the Camera d’Or, went to director Pablo Giorgelli of Argentina for “Las Acacias.”  The prize for Best Screenplay went to Joseph Cedar for “Footnote” (Israel).