Sandra Wollner

Styrian Director Wins Film Award in Cannes

In her acceptance speech at the Palais des Festivals, Wollner expressed her delight at being able to hold on a little longer to the whimsical and peculiar ideas that artists often ignore at first, but which usually linger with one a little longer.(Bild: AFP/OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)

Sandra Wollner has done it: The Austrian director’s film “Everytime” was named the winner of the Un Certain Regard section at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Friday evening. 

Born in Leoben in 1983 and now based in Berlin, Wollner receives the top prize in the festival’s second-most important section on the Croisette—which awards the Palme d’Or in the main competition on Saturday—for her third feature film, following “Das unmögliche Bild” and “The Trouble with Being Born.”

In “Everytime,” Wollner tells the story of Ella, a mother brilliantly portrayed by Birgit Minichmayr, who lives a simple but happy life with her two daughters, Jessie (Carla Hüttermann) and Melli (Lotte Shirin Keiling)—until Jessie has an accident while high on drugs alongside her boyfriend Lux (Tristán López). Together with Lux, Ella must learn to live with her grief and build a new life around this loss.

From left: Birgit Minichmayr, Lotte Shirin Keiling, Sandra Wollner, Carla Hüttermann, Esja Wendel, and Tristán López in Cannes(Bild: EPA/CLEMENS BILAN)

The other awards
The jury, chaired by French actress Leila Bekhti, honored not only Sandra Wollner with the top prize but also other works from the lineup of 19 films. It awarded its Jury Prize to “Elephants in the Fog” by Abinash Bikram Shah and its Special Prize to “Iron Boy” by Louis Clichy.

In the acting category, the trio of Daniela Marín Navarro, Marina de Tavira, and Mariangel Villegas was honored for their performance in Valentina Maurel’s “Forever Your Maternal Animal.” Among the men, however, Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won for his role in “Congo Boy” by Rafiki Fariala.