No luck for British at Cannes

Published on Monday 25 May 2009 01:40

BRITISH film makers failed to take any of the top prizes at the Cannes film festival last night, but a home-grown director did walk away with the Jury Prize.

Austrian director Micheal Haneke won the Palme d'Or with his dark tale of life in a German village on the eve of the First World War.

The Grand Prix was awarded to French film, A Prophet by Jacques Audiard.

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds – which was completed in eight months in order to be presented at the festival – only made an appearance in Best Actor category where the award went to Christoph Waltz.

Keeping the flag flying for the British film industry was Fish Tank – Andrea Arnold's film about 15-year-old Mia whose life is turned upside down when her mother brings home a new boyfriend.

The powerful story of betrayed love shared the Jury Prize with Thirst by Chan-Wook Park. It is the second time Arnold has triumphed in that category – she took the Jury prize in 2006 for Red Road.

But another British director who was tipped for an award failed to convince the judges of the short film category. Emma Sullivan's After Tomorrow was said to be a front runner but the prize went in the end to Joao Salaviza's Arena – a story of a man under house arrest who whiles away the time tattooing.

Sullivan, who lives in London and Woodbridge, Suffolk, entered a taut, claustrophobic thriller with a remarkable – and moving – twist at the end.

It tells the story of a man going to his wife's village who wakes up in a house to find two women there who refuse to let him leave the building.

Sullivan, 39, made the film for 10,000, with money from Screen East.