Cannes (People’s Daily) - The 71st Cannes Film Festival announced its award winners on Saturday, with Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda winning the Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters,” American director Spike Lee win the Grand Prix for “BlacKkKlansman,” and Lebanese director Nadine Labaki winning the Jury Prize for “Capharnaum.”

Kore-eda’s win defied speculation that the festival’s top award would be given to a female director this year. Yet, actress Cate Blanchett, who headed the jury of five women and four men at the event, said the jury was “bowled over” by his directorial vision.

Several actresses at the festival took to the stage to denounce Hollywood’s longstanding history of sexual abuse, including Italian actress Asia Argento. Argento is one of the many women who accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and claims that he raped her at the Cannes film festival in 1997 when she was 21.

Argento also said there were more abusers in the festival audience that will be outed in the future.

“You know who you are, but, most importantly, we know who you are, and we are not going to allow you to get away with it any long,” Argento said to the crowd.

Several of the other big winners of the festival include Samal Yeslyamova for Best Actress in “Akya” by Russian director Sergey Dvortsevoy, Marcello Fonte for Best Actor in “Dogman” directed by Italian director Matteo Garrone, and Pawel Pawlikowski winning Best Screenplay for “Cold War.”

87-year-old French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard received a Special Palme d’Or for his collage of sounds and images called “The Image Book.”

Top image: Actor Huang Jue attends the photocall for "Long Day's Journey Into Night" during the 71st Cannes International Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 16, 2018. (Photo: Xinhua)