‘Mimosas’ Wins Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize

CANNES — Oliver Laxe’s sophomore outing “Mimosas” has won the Nespresso Grand Prize of Cannes’ Critics Week.

Critics’ Week, whose artistic director is Charles Tesson, had a jury presided by Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”) and comprising Alice Winocour, Nadav Lapid, David Robert Mitchell and Santiago Mitre — all of whom are Critics’ Week alumni.

Sold by Paris-based Luxbox, the lushly-lensed “Mimosas” follows the journey of an elderly and dying Sheikh who travels across the Moroccan Atlas in a caravan, escorted by two rogues. Laxe made his debut feature with the critically-acclaimed “You All Are Captains.”

Mehmet Can Merto?lu’s Turkish comedy “Album” won the France 4 Visionary Award, while Davy Chou and Claire Maugendre’s narrative feature debut “Diamond Island” nabbed the SACD prize.

“Album” centers on a couple who stages a pregnancy to pretend that the child they’re looking to adopt is theirs. The social satire delivers a snapshot of the Turkish middle class and explores topics of prejudice as well as bureaucracy in modern Turkey.

“Diamond Island” is a Cambodian-French teen movie about an adolescent who leaves rural Cambodia to become a construction worker only to be reunited with his missing older brother.

Wregas Bhanuteja’s “Prenjak” snatched up the Leica Cine Discovery prize for best short.

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