Cannes Blog: 6

OK, it's 7.45pm on a Sunday night and I'm back home in London. We've got Holby City re-runs blaring away on the TV and I'm starting to get a little antsy sat behind my computer as my repeated Googling of the word "Palme d'Or" is yielding no results. Finally - and I remain baffled as to how he knew - a colleague texts me the words "The Romainian won it!" with which I knew my incessant clicking could finally cease. "The Romainian" in question is actually the unofficial title bequeathed by journalists to the film 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days which screened on the first full day of the festival and remained a sure-fire critical hotcake until the curtains were finally drawn 12 says later.

Thinking back to when I caught the film, I remember being sat in the screening room next to the aforementioned colleague and, during the film's preamble, he said to me: "I bet this film is amazing. The organisers must have known that My Blueberry Nights was a bit of a stinker so they'll have to counter that with something that just blows people away". It sickens me to have to admit it, but he was totally right. As a critical barometer, it was actually very handy to see it so early on as if I wasn't able to immediately gauge my reaction to a film, I could always think, 'It's good, but it's no Romanian".

Almost as if to spite me, three of the other films that picked up prizes were of the five competition films I didn't get a chance to see. The Mourning Forrest by Japan's Naomi Kawase nabbed the second place Grand Prix, much to the chagrin of critics who claimed that it was a minor piece of work at best. Predictably, Julian Schnabel won a best director gong for his The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

It beggars belief that Konstantin Lavronenko walked away with the Best Actor prize for his turn as a tormented husband and father in the beautifully shot, yet interminably dull Russian drama The Banishment (Javier Bardem was robbed!). Best Actress came as less of a surprise as it went to Jeon Do-yeon for her emotive turn in the Korean film, Secret Sunshine - again, another one that slipped me by.

Though many have punched holes through the roof of their Stetsons at hearing the Coen brother's No Country For Old Men walked away with not so much runners-up Christmas ham, it's a film which doesn't need prizes to afford it success as it's a taut, populist drama and, well, just really rather good.

Though it was only my first year on the Croisette, I'm told that the films on offer were generally stronger than past years. I clocked in a thoroughly respectable 33 films over ten days (that's 3.3 films a day) with no walk-outs (though it was a close call for Israeli family drama, Telehim) and just one quick snooze (during Ana Katz' The Stray Grilfriend - nothing to do with the film, I was just tired). The two smaller films that I hope receive a UK distribution are Eran Kolirin's deadpan crowd-pleaser from Egypt, The Band's Visit and Yang Li's Chinese people-trafficking thriller Blind Mountain which, for my money, contained the best closing scene of any film at this year's festival. And talking of closing scenes, adios amigos.

David Jenkins