Cannes Film Festival 2023: Justine Triet's 'Anatomy of a Fall' wins Palme d'Or

French director Justine Triet has won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for L’anatomie d’une chute (Anatomy of a Fall), becoming only the second solo female director in history to win the Palme d’Or, following Julia Ducournau’s win in 2021 for Titane.

The win comes as something of a shock, as the courtroom drama was well received but was only spoken about on the Croisette as a contender for Best Actress (for Sandra Hüller) or Best Screenplay.

The prestigious Palme d’Or was presented by Jane Fonda.

“First time I came was in 1963,” said Fonda. “The festival was smaller then. There were no female directors competing at that time and it never even occurred to us that there was something wrong with that. We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”

"We must celebrate change,” said Fonda about the role of women in cinema, highlighting that this year’s line-up had a “historic” number of female filmmakers – seven in total.

The Jury, presided over by two-time Palme d’Or-winning director Ruben Östlund (The Square, Triangle of Sadness) and including directors Maryam Touzani, Julia Ducournau, Rungano Nyoni, Damián Szifron, as well as actors Denis Ménochet, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, and writer Atiq Rahimi, selected Anatomy of a Fall from 21 films in Competition this year – a particularly strong selection.

Triet's second film in Competition following the 2019 dark comedy Sibyl is a gripping mystery about a writer forced to defend herself in court when she becomes the main suspect in her husband’s ‘murder’. The movie morphs from procedural to courtroom drama, and while it ticks a lot of conventional tropes linked to the genre, Triet and main actress Sandra Hüller keep the confident drama engaging throughout. We