Cannes’ Ecumenical Jury winners are Grand Jury’s top awardees

MANILA, Philippines – Was it a mere coincidence that the Grand Jury’s three top winners in the just-concluded Cannes Film Festival are the very films that the Ecumenical Jury awarded, or do these two sets of jurors think alike?

Cannes’ Grand Jury, a nine-member panel presided over this year by iconic director George Miller, awarded the most coveted Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) to British director Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake. Given the Grand Prix is young Canadian Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, while the third prize, the Prix du Jury, went to British director Andrea Arnold’s American Honey.

A partner of Cannes Film Festival since 1974, the Ecumenical Jury — composed of three Catholic and three Protestant jurors — this year awarded the Prix du Jury Oecumenique to It’s Only the End of the World and gave a Special Commendation each to American Honey and I, Daniel Blake. 

At first glance, the three films may be worlds apart from one another, but a deeper look may reveal that something subtly threads them together — the theme of compassion, and how the lack of it steers the lives of the characters, young and old alike, in these three stories. 

The author with the rest of the jury Cindy Mollaret, Karin Achtelstetter, Gabrie la Lettini, Ernest Kouacou and Nicole Vercueil after Holy Mass and church services

In It’s Only the End of the World, Louis, a gay writer, terminally ill from AIDS, returns home after a 12-year absence to announce his impending death to his family. But instead of a healing reunion, he is confronted with a veritable word war among his family members, crushing him into silence and rendering his intended disclosure impossible.

American Honey is a road film that tells the journey of its 18-year-old heroine Star who thinks her life is facing a dead end, and so joins a bunch of youngsters crossing the country in a mini-bus. They earn their keep by selling magazine subscriptions from door to door — and occasionally steal valuables from the homes that let them in. Whenever and wherever they stop they have wild parties, drugs, booze and sex, bound by no ethics nor morality except the rules set by their gang leader.

A 59-year-old carpenter is the protagonist in I, Daniel Blake. Recovering from a heart attack and having to deal with one heartless bureaucrat after another, he cannot get the state to agree with his doctors that he is no longer fit to work. A platonic friendship with single mother Katie, nurtured by an empathetic frustration over the state’s inhuman treatment of the poor, leads to hope, but it’s too late.

What good might these characters have done with their lives had there been compassionate souls willing to listen to the dying, to give direction to aimless youth, to regard society’s vulnerable human beings with dignity? These three recipients of honors from Cannes’ Ecumenical Jury, each in its own unique way, ought to move the audience to investigate beneath the surface of things, and perhaps look into their own response to social and familial conditions that have long been taken for granted.

Established in 1973 by Christian filmmakers, film critics and other film professionals, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is an independent film award for feature films at major international film festivals. It has been awarded at Cannes since 1974 with the objective to “honor works of artistic quality which witnesses to the power of film to reveal the mysterious depths of human beings through what concerns them, their hurts and failings as well as their hopes.”

The Ecumenical Jury is composed of six members who are nominated by SIGNIS (Catholic members) and Interfilm (Protestants). Members of this year’s Ecumenical Jury at Cannes are: Cindy Mollaret, writer (France); Karin Achtelstetter, pastor and WACC General Secretary (Canada); Ernest Kouacou, diocesan priest and president of SIGNIS-Africa (Cote d’Ivoire); Gabriella Lettini, minister and scholar (United States); this writer (Philippines); and Nicole Vercueil, editor and publisher (France).

(Editor’s note: Writer, editor and Secular Carmelite, Teresa R. Tunay of CBCP-CINEMA served as juror for the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes Film Festival last May 11 to 22, becoming the first Filipino to hold the post).