The Cannes Competition jury in its 79th edition, headed by South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, had clearly decided that they wouldn’t do anything by halves. Several of the top awards were split into two: The Best Actor award went to the jubilant pair of Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne in ‘Coward’, the Lukas Dhont-directed gay romance set during world war one; the Best Actress award was shared amongst Virginie Efira and Tao Ekamoto for Ryusuke Hamaguchi ‘s ‘All Of A Sudden’, a contemporary drama set in a Paris home for the elderly.The Best Director was divvied up between Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s ‘La Bola Negra’, a film whose bravura stylistic tempo, layering a trifecta of queer relationships in the past and present, made it the standout of this year’s competition, and Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Fatherland’, a black-and-white slice of Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann’s life, set in post second world war Germany.For a year the competition section didn’t have as many gems as the previous years, the jury made up for it by handing out prizes to the worthiest films. Tilda Swinton, in fiery red, said it best: the Cannes film festival ‘resonates around the planet’ because the film here are a symbol of transformation and hope.The Best Film was given to Critsian Mugiu’s Fjord, about a religious family struggling to come to terms with the rules of another country. And the Grand Prix went to Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, set in 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was only six months old, and how that impacted the mini-oligarchs, the authorities and the regular folks, including a pair of illicit lovers.It’s too bad that Barbara Streisand couldn’t be there for her Honorary Palme’ d’Or, because she was too unwell to travel. But the other two awardees showed up in person: Peter Jackson was a down-to-earth delight on the opening night, and the mid-fest Palme’ went to an overwhelmed John Travolta, in that very chic beret, who declared: this is beyond the Oscar!You can keep fighting over the two biggest film events on the calendar, but when it comes to films, fashion, fun on the glitziest stretch of the Riviera, Cannes wins hands down. The ten-day jamboree leads to a Croisette so crowded that you can barely walk, with red carpets, brand ambassadors, movie moghuls, buyers and sellers, casting agents: regulars learn that the back alleys are quicker and faster, especially if you need to reach your film in time.It’s impossible to watch everything. The films are in different sections– Competition, Un Certain Regard, The Short Films and La Cinef (student films), Cannes Critics’ Week, and the Director’s Fortnight, which runs parallel to the main event– and you have to pick and choose, kicking yourself if the film you’re in turns out to be a turkey.Story continues below this adPark Chan-wook’s jury included American actor Demi Moore, Irish-Ethiopian actor Ruth Negga, Chinese director and writer Chloe Zhao, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, Belgian director Laura Wandel, Chilean director Diego Cespedes, Ivorian-American actor Isaach de Bancole.From the films up for competition, it’s clear that European cinema hasn’t got over its obsession with the world wars—perhaps natural, given that a state of war exists in the Middle East: references were made to Palestine during the evening. The other big theme explored in many films revolved around LGBTQi characters, including Lukas Dhont’s Coward, Jeanne Henry’s Garance, the two Javiers’ La Bola Negra, Ira Sachs’ A Man I Love, among others.Also Read – Elephants in the Fog review: Nepal’s Cannes Jury Prize winner is quietly powerfulJust two Indian films were officially selected this year: Mehar Malhotra’s FTII film Shadows Of The Moonless Night in the student’s film section, and John Abraham’s Amma Ariyan, which premiered in the Cannes Classics: the former has just started on her cinema journey, and the other no longer in this world, whose film has had a seminal influence on independent cinema in India.Story continues below this adOf the South Asian presence at the Croisette this year, Nepal’s ‘Elephants In The Fog’ won a Jury prize in the Un Certain Regard, a potent mix of love, loss and longing, featuring kinnars, the third gender, and elephants, the wise and gentle giants of the jungle, a film that echoes so many of those who spoke at the closing ceremony, of empathy and compassion.