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Iraqi director Hasan Hadi's first feature The President's Cake has won the second edition of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight People's Choice audience award.
New York-based Hadi has tapped into his own childhood in southern Iraq in the 1990s under the regime of President Saddam Hussein and the socio-economic crisis provoked by international sanctions.
The drama follows nine-year-old Lamia who gets the short straw of having to provide a birthday cake for her classmates to celebrate the president's birthday. Gathering the ingredients for the mandatory cake at a time of shortages is a monumental task but failure to deliver could lead to prison or death for her family.
Leah Chen Baker produced under the banner of New-York-based TPC Film LLC. Films Boutique handles international sales, with UTA handling North America.
Deadline critic Pete Hammond has also fallen for the film describing it as a "a true gem and a real discovery". Check out his review here.
Directors' Fortnight, which has never had a jury, launched the €7,500 ($8,400) cash prize, in partnership with The Chantel Akerman Foundation last year. It is the only audience award across Official Selection and the parallel sections in Cannes.
It celebrates the legacy of late Belgian director Chantal Akerman, a long-time friend of the Fortnight, who premiered several works, including Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, in the section. It takes its cue from her radical filmmaking.
It won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in Cannes Directors' Fortnight, which means it will receive the support of the Europa Cinemas Network, with additional promotion and incentives for exhibitors to extend the film's run on screen.
The jury this year consisted of Marie Boudon (Cinéma le Méliès, Montreuil, France); Ditte Daugbjerg Christensen (Øst for Paradis, Aarhus, Denmark); Caro Raedts (Cinema ZED, Leuven, Belgium) and Piotr Szczyszyk (Kino Palacowe, Poznań, Poland).
The film follows a young male boxer in a sports oriented boarding school, who suffers a serious accident, and suffers mentally as well as physically.
"His confidence is shattered, his position as leader crumbles, and he has to totally reassess his whole approach to life. It is a sports film but without the usual predictable clichés," the jury said in a statement.
"Wild Foxes tackles the burning issue of young male friendship and fragility. The whole ensemble cast is exceptionally strong, and really gives the film power and believability," the jury said in a statement
Sold internationally by The Party Film Sales, the film is a Hélicotronc (Belgium) production, co-produced with Les Films du Poisson (France). The producers are Julie Esparbes and Inès Daïen Dasi.
The screenplay is by the director Carnoy, with photography by Arnaud Guez, sound by Charlie Cabocel, François Aubinet, Thibaud Rie and Mathieu Cox, production design by Yasmina Chavanne, editing by Suzana Pedro, and music by Pierre Desprats.
Samuel Kircher stars as the protagonist alongside a cast featuring Fayçal Anaflous, Jef Jacobs, Anna Heckel, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Hassane Alili, and Salahdine El Garchi.
Carnoy trained at the INSAS film and drama school in Brussels. His graduation film, My Planet, won Best Film at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF). In 2021, his second short film Titan, also won more than thirty awards and was selected in a hundred international festivals.
Wild Foxes also won the French writers guild SACD's Coup de Coeur prize reserved for the best French-language film in the selection.
This year's jury consisted of SACD head Anne Villacèque as well as directors Catherine Corsini and Delphine Gleize.
"We were bowled over by the strong, audacious, and joyful offerings at this year's Directors' Fortnight, they said in a statement.
"The film we fell in love articulates the struggles and questions of adolescence with incredible brilliance. It's a body at work, a heart that blossoms, a victory over fear, a film led by an incredible, fragile actor, who has the power of James Dean. The film is carried by a singular perspective, a talent for writing, for directing, and a masterful sense of framing. It's this shock of emotions, of violence, of the exhaustion of young bodies, that overwhelmed us and literally pushed us to the ropes."