Cannes critics' poll

Below, I have copied a piece on the results of a critics' poll at this year's Cannes film festival. The good news is that the first and one of the second place films have North American distribution, while the other second place finisher will most likely join their ranks soon. The bad news is that the fourth place picture, directed by one of my favorite living directors, Hou Hsiao-hsien, is unlikely to be released theatrically in this country, according to an industry insider with whom I spoke earlier today. More on that later. For now, here is the piece:

Hidden triumphs in Screen critics' poll
Tim Dams in London 24 May 2005

It may not have won the Palme d'Or, but Michael Haneke's Hidden has emerged as the most popular Cannes competition title according to Screen's annual poll of international critics.

The Screen Cannes jury was made up of 12 key critics from around the world who voted on every film in competition, awarding four points for an 'excellent' film down to zero points for a 'bad' film.

Hidden averaged an impressive 3.3 points among Screen's jury, just ahead of Palme d'Or winner The Child by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Broken Flowers by Jim Jarmusch. Both films came in joint second place with an average score of 3.2 points. Hou Hsiao Hsien's Three Times ranked fourth, with an average score of 3.1.

Overall, this year's average score per film was 2.2. This is an improvement on 2004 (2.1 points) and 2003's poorly received competition (2.0 points). But it falls short of the vintage year of 2002 (2.4 points), when Roman Polanski's The Pianist won the Palme d'Or.

Critics voting for the Screen jury include Derek Malcolm of the London Evening Standard, Michel Ciment of France's Positif and Glenn Kenny of Premiere in the US.