Cannes Film Festival Pays Tribute To “Unique & Visionary Artist” David Lynch
The Cannes Film Festival has paid tribute to director David Lynch who was a long-time habitué, winning it Palme d’Or prize for Wild at Heart in 1990 and serving as jury president in 2002.
“It is with infinite sadness that we learn of the passing of David Lynch, a unique and visionary artist whose work has influenced cinema like few others,” the festival said in a statement following the announcement of the director’s death on Thursday at the age of 78.
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“Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes in 1990 for Sailor and Lula (Wild At Heart), then the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director) in 2001 for Mulholland Drive, he elegantly presided over the Jury in 2002,” it continued. “He leaves behind a rare and timeless body of work, whose films will continue to nourish our imagination and inspire all those who see cinema as an art capable of revealing the unspeakable.”
Lynch was a regular guest at Cannes, kicking off with Wild at Heart for which he won the Palme d’Or in 1990, beating other contenders such as Clint Eastwood’s White Hunter, Black Heart, Ken Loach’s Hidden Agenda and Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague.
He also participated in the main Competition with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), The Straight Story (1999) and Mulholland Drive (2001), for which he won Best Director, tying with Joel Coen (The Man Who Wasn’t There).
Lynch returned the following year in the role of president of the jury, with other members including Bille August, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Sharon Stone and Michelle Yeoh.
They awarded Roman Polanski the Cannes Palme d’Or for The Pianist, Aki Kaurism?ki the Grand Prize of the Jury for The Man With A Past, and Elia Suleiman the Jury Prize for Divine Intervention.
More recently, Lynch was at Cannes in 2007 as one of the 34 filmmakers contributing to the anthology film To Each His Own Cinema, celebrating the festival’s 60th anniversary.
His short film contribution Absurda, was not ready in time to be edited into the version that premiered in Cannes, and instead played ahead of Wong Kar-wai’s opening night film My Blueberry Nights.
Lynch returned to the festival in 2017 for its 70th edition celebrations and a special screening of his Twin Peaks reboot.
Beyond Cannes, Lynch’s early work was also championed by France’s Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, which ran in the French Alps from 1973 to 1993.
The festival invited his debut film Eraserhead to its 1978 edition and then welcomed his Oscar-nominated movies The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet to its 1981 and 1987 editions, where they won its Grand Prize.
In other festival tributes, Venice, which feted Lynch with its Golden Lion for Career Achievement in 2006, accompanied by a screening of Inland Empire, also put out a statement.
“The President, the General Manager, the Board of Directors, the Director of the Venice International Film Festival and La Biennale di Venezia remember the director David Lynch, one of the filmmakers who have most influenced contemporary art cinema, thanks to his personal and visionary style and constant search for the limits of cinematographic form,” it read.
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