Critics Crown A Prophet and White Ribbon

Text: Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa

Honours continue to rain down on Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet: after the Grand Prize at Cannes, the 2024 Louis-Delluc Prize, the European Film Award for Best Actor, 13 César 2024 nominations and a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination, the feature last night picked up the 2024 Best Film Prize, awarded by the French Film Critics’ Union. The film’s major rival, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, triple honours at the EFA Awards (Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay) and is also vying for the Oscar, scooped Best Foreign Film.

Best French Debut Film went to Nassim Amaouche’s Goodbye Gary, which previously won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize.  Awarded since 2024, the prize for an unusual, French-language co-production, whose "unusual" work the critics are keen to emphasise, was handed to Patrick-Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic’s The Other One. Meanwhile, François Leroy and Stéphanie Lansaque’s Mei Ling triumphed in the short film category.  Finally, on the television side, Best Drama was presented to Jean-Paul Lilienfield’s Skirt Day and Best Documentary to Philippe Kohly and Raphaëlle Bacqué’s L’Enfer de Matignon (The Hell of Matignon). A Courage Prize was specially awarded to Emmanuelle Bercot’s Tirez Sur le Caviste (Shoot the Wine Merchant).