Film4 enjoys double Cannes success

Film4-backed films picked up two awards at the Cannes Film Festival last night.

At the prestigious festival Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster was awarded the Jury Prize, whilst Rooney Mara shared the Best Actress prize for her role in Todd Haynes’ Carol.

The prize-winning films were also praised by the critics. Carol was labelled “gorgeous, gently groundbreaking… an exquisite work” by the Daily Telegraph, whilst The Times acknowledged that “both Mara and Blanchett are magnificent”.

Of The Lobster the Daily Telegraph said “I haven’t seen anything quite like it before, and I’m still not sure that I have even now.”

Film4 had a record four films In Competition this year, with Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth and Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth also receiving their world premieres. The Times described Youth as “a visual banquet of a film… Sorrentino’s film-making is masterful”, whilst Macbeth prompted the Daily Telegraph to muse “Blockbuster battle scenes, spine-tingling staging, utterly believable performances: is this as good as Shakespeare on film gets?”

Carol, The Lobster, Youth and Macbeth join a raft of bold and distinctive upcoming releases on Film4’s slate, including Sarah Gavron's Suffragette, Susanna White's Our Kind of Traitor, Lenny Abrahamson's Room, Ben Wheatley's High Rise, Debbie Tucker Green's Second Coming, Anton Corbijn's Life and Andrew Haigh's 45 Years.