Ruben Östlund’s social satire Triangle of Sadness wins Cannes Palme d’Or
At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Ruben Östlund’s biting social satire Triangle of Sadness was awarded the festival’s highest honour, the Palme d’Or. The announcement came during the closing ceremony at the Grand Lumière Theatre on Saturday, 28 May 2022, when the film was selected by the festival jury as the standout title of the year.
With this victory, Swedish director Ruben Östlund joins an elite group of filmmakers who have won the Palme d’Or twice. Östlund, who previously took the prize for his 2017 film The Square, is only the ninth director in Cannes history to claim the award on two separate occasions. In his acceptance remarks, he reflected on cinema’s communal power: “All of us agree that the unique thing with cinema is that we’re watching together. So we have to save something to talk about but we should also have fun and be entertained.”
Triangle of Sadness features Woody Harrelson in the role of a Marxist yacht captain who finds himself in a surreal situation when the super-rich passengers he transports are stranded on an island. The film blends sharp social commentary with dark humour and absurdist scenarios, continuing the satirical tone familiar to Östlund’s previous work, including Force Majeure and The Square. Critics and audiences praised its willingness to interrogate class, privilege, and power through provocative set pieces and pointed dialogue.
The Palme d’Or was awarded by a nine-member jury of international filmmakers and actors. The jury was presided over by French actor Vincent Lindon and included established names from the global film community. While Östlund took the festival’s top prize, the Best Director award went to South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook for Decision to Leave, a methodical murder mystery that drew acclaim for its visual language and narrative control.
At Cannes this year the Grand Prix, the festival’s second-highest honour, was awarded jointly to two films. Claire Denis’s Stars at Noon, a romantic thriller set against political unrest in the 1980s, shared the prize with Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s Close, a sensitive drama exploring the bond between two thirteen-year-old boys and the emotional challenges they face. Both films were singled out by the jury for their distinct voices and the emotional resonance of their storytelling.
Individual acting awards at the festival recognized standout performances across a range of international films. Song Kang-ho, widely known for his role in Parasite, won Best Actor for his portrayal of a fatherly figure in Broker, a film that follows a family navigating the aftermath of an abandoned child. Best Actress went to Zar Amir Ebrahimi for her powerful work as a determined journalist in Holy Spider, a film that grappled with dark subject matter through an uncompromising central performance.
Screenwriting was also honoured: Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh received the Best Screenplay prize for Boy from Heaven, a political thriller set in Cairo that blends intrigue with social commentary. The Jury Prize was split between The Eight Mountains, by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, and EO, by Jerzy Skolimowski—both films acknowledged for their distinctive artistic achievement.
Other festival awards included the 75th Anniversary Prize, which recognized Tori et Lokita by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film, awarded to War Pony from Riley Keough and Gina Gammell. Special mention in the first-film category went to Plan 75, directed by Chie Hayakawa. In recognition of a distinguished career, Forest Whitaker received an Honorary Palme d’Or at the ceremony, celebrating his longstanding contributions to cinema.
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival once again highlighted the diversity of contemporary filmmaking, honouring established auteurs alongside emerging voices and acknowledging films from a range of countries and perspectives. From sharp, satirical takes on class and privilege to intimate character studies and political thrillers, the awarded films reflected the festival’s continued commitment to artistic excellence and global storytelling.