2017 Cannes International Film Festival

This year’s Palme d’Or winner The Square is a satirical look at the contemporary art world. The curator of a modern art museum in Stockholm, Christian (played by Danish actor Claes Bang), is desperately looking to create success for the art gallery and himself.

Could 2017 go down as the year of the women despite men taking all of the top awards at the Cannes Film Festival, bar one? The Palme d’Or went to Ruben Östlund, for the Swedish satire The Square. The runner-up Grand Prix went to festival favorite 120 Beats per Minute, by French director Robin Campillo, and Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev was awarded the Jury Prize for his drama Loveless.

The 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival came to a close on the same wave length as it started – as a celebration of innovation, diversity and inclusion. With women featuring prominently in this year’s line-up, it was only natural that they left a mark on the final choices, with Sofia Coppola (best director), Lynne Ramsay (best screenplay), Léonor Serraille (Caméra d’Or) and Chloe Zhao (Directors Fortnight) winning behind the camera, Jasmine Trinca taking the Un Certain Regard solitary acting award, and Nicole Kidman winning pretty much the whole festival, with four powerhouse performances that earned her the special 70th Anniversary Award.

“I certainly have not been paid the same as a male star. Sometimes I've had to accept (the pay disparity) for financial reasons, or because I really wanted to play that role.

Some awards have already been given - Cinefondation, Directors Fortnight, Un Certain Regard, Critics' Week - and as of end of day today, with the gala premiere of Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, all films in competition would have been screened. A thick veil of suspense envelops the Croisette as Pedro Almodóvar's jury debates the merits of this jubilee year's selection.

Born in Sweden, catapulted to stardom by Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman is such an integral part of Cannes that the festival made her the face of the event in 2015, the centenary of her birth.   She visited the festival many times and was president of the competition jury in 1973.

Consider the life of a Cannes jury member - there's basically two activities in her/his agenda:  watching the best international films available at the moment and attending whatever events tickle her/his fancy among the vast opportunities available; this, in a country famous for the excellence of its cuisine, wines and parties. The job, of course, also comes with a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility.

By the time Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese met on the Croisette in 1990, both were already celebrated master filmmakers. Scorsese had one Palme d'Or (Taxi Driver) and one Best Director prize (After Hours), plus three nominations for the Palme (Alice Doesn't LIve Here Anymore, The King of Comedy and After Hours) and one Golden Globe nomination for Raging Bull.

The day started in a flurry of actvity - panels, a master class, parties, the massive AMFAR benefit at the Hotel du Cap in Cap d'Antibes - and ended with a surprise: the longest standing ovation of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Not for a film: for a TV series.

If you grew up under the spell of Captain Jack Sparrow you will probably  find it difficult to believe that, back in 1990s, Johnny Depp was the muse of independent filmmakers both stateside and abroad, and a regular Cannes fixture - in competition, not to promote some massive blockbuster. Our multi-nominated and Best Actor Golden Globe winner was in Cannes twice with (a young, bold) Tim Burton, in 1990 for Edward Scissorhands and in 1994 for Ed Wood - nominated for a Palme d'Or and responsible for the most coveted promotional item on the Croisette, that year: a black t-shirt with 'Mon prochain film sera meilleur' ('My next film will be bettter') inscribed in giant pink letters.