Italy garners honours in Cannes

(ANSA) - Cannes, May 29 - The curtain fell on the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, with the main success for Italy claimed by Jasmine Trinca as best actress for her performance in 'Fortunata' in the Un Certain Regard section. Italian actress Monica Bellucci hosted the opening and closing ceremonies on the Croisette, while the official jury headed by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar also included Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino.
    'Fortunata', a film by actor-director Sergio Castellitto about a salt-of-the-earth hairdresser in pursuit of her dream to open her own salon in the Roman suburbs, was one of two Italian films to appear in Un Certain Regard, the section running parallel to the official selection judged by a separate jury headed by actress Uma Thurman. The other was Annarita Zambrano's directing debut 'Dopo la guerra' (After the war).
    Trinca dedicated her prize to her mother "who taught me Fortunata's integrity and to my daughter who is eight like Fortunata's daughter and who cried and protested this morning because I wouldn't be with her tonight".
    She also thanked director Castellitto and his novelist wife Margaret Mazzantini, who wrote the screenplay. "I owe a lot (to both of them)," Trinca said.
    "They entrusted their creature to me, they trusted me; then it all came naturally, with the strength, determination, anger of this woman who united us all on the set, driving us to give of our best." The film, which also stars Stefano Accorsi, was released in Italy on May 20. Four other Italian films appeared in other sections at Cannes this year.
    They were Sicilian Ghost Story by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, which opened the Semaine de la critique, and Roberto De Paolis' debut Cuori Puri, A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano and L'Intrusa by Leonardo Di Costanzo in the Quinzaine des Realisateurs section.
    "In addition to great vibrancy, Italy has shown in particular the appearance of a new class of authors ready to enter the international limelight," Castellitto said.
    The Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes film festival, went to Swedish director Ruben Ostlund's comedy "The Square".
    Sofia Coppola became only the second woman to win the best director award for "The Beguiled", a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 Civil War drama about a Union soldier hiding out in a Southern girls' school. The film stars Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst and Nicole Kidman, who won the special prize. Diane Kruger was named best actress for her performance in Fatih Akin's "In the Fade", and Joaquin Phoenix won best actor for his part in Lynne Ramsay's thriller "You Were Never Really Here".