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Cannes 2013: ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ wins Palme d’Or

Director Abdellatif Kechiche, center, and stars Lea Seydoux, left, and Adele Exarchopoulos receive the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival for "Blue Is the Warmest Color."
Director Abdellatif Kechiche, center, and stars Lea Seydoux, left, and Adele Exarchopoulos receive the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival for “Blue Is the Warmest Color.”
(Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA)
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The French lesbian love story “Blue Is the Warmest Color” won the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. In an unprecedented step, jury president Steven Spielberg announced that the prize had been given not only to director Abdellatiff Kechiche but to costars Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux as well.

The film, which French critics adored but the foreign contingent had mixed feelings about, got a rapturous reception from the Palais de Festival crowd, and both actresses were in tears by the time they reached the stage.

French actress Berenice Bejo, the star of “The Artist,” was even more shocked a few minutes earlier when she unexpectedly won the best actress award for her role in Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past,” so much so that she gave her acceptance speech in English.

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PHOTOS: Cannes Film Festival 2013

It was a good night for American films as well. The Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” won the Grand Prize, the runner-up to the Palme d’Or, and Bruce Dern, star of Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska,” took the best actor prize.

Other winners included Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (jury prize for “Like Father, Like Son”), China’s Jia Zhangke (screenplay prize for “A Touch of Sin”) and Mexico’s Amat Escalante (best director for “Heli”).

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Check back for more later on Movies Now.

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