Haneke wins again. The official 65th Cannes Film Festival awards for 2012 were announced tonight, wrapping up 12 days of the international fest. The biggest winner, taking home the Palme d'Or for his 2nd time, is director Michael Haneke and his film Amour (aka Love), followed by Matteo Garrone's Reality, which won the Grand Prix as second place. The fest also awarded a number of other prizes, including giving Benh Zeitlin's Sundance favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild the Camera d'Or, top prize for first-time filmmakers. While the Palme is one of the most prestigious awards, the top winner isn't usually my favorite.

Here's the full list of Cannes 2012 winners, with most of the key awards listed below, including Un Certain Regard. I'll get into my own commentary after the winners. Head to the official Cannes website for more.

Palme d'Or (Golden Palm):

Amour directed by Michael Haneke

Grand Prix (Runner Up):

Reality directed by Matteo Garrone

Best Director:

Carlos Reygadas for Post Tenebras Lux

Jury Prize:

The Angel's Share directed by Ken Loach

Best Screenplay:

Cristian Mungiu for Beyond The Hills

Camera d'Or (First-Time Filmmaker):

Beasts of the Southern Wild directed by Benh Zeitlin

Best Lead Actor:

Mads Mikkelsen in Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt

Best Leading Actress (Tie):

Cosmina Stratan & Cristina Flutur in Cristian Mungiu's Beyond The Hills

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard Prize:

After Lucia directed by Michel Franco

Special Jury Prize:

Le Grand Soir directed by Gustave de Kervern & Benoît Delépine

Best Actress (Tie):

Suzanne Clément in Xavier Dolan's Laurence Anyways

Émilie Dequenne in Joachim Lafosse's Loving Without Reason

Special Distinction of the Jury:

Djeca directed by Aida Begic

Congratulations to all of this year's Cannes winners. Michael Haneke most recently won the Palme d'Or in 2009 for The White Ribbon, which also went on to get a Best Foreign Language Oscar nom. However, I'm now infamous for being the one who "hated" his newest Palme-winning film Amour in Cannes this year (my review), but after further reflection, I wouldn't use the term "hate", though I still stand by my opinion. The film was just wasn't for me, and something about his style and presentation just doesn't connect with me. Amour is about an old married French couple struggling with the realities of death, and while it is a brutally honest story, it didn't connect with me emotionally in any way, and despite this win, I still don't care for it.

As much as I love Cannes, I almost always disagree with the Palme d'Or winner (at least ever since I've been attending in 2009), but I don't mind, it's just an award and I am still walking out of this festival with many other great films on my mind. If you love the kind of films that Cannes awards, then make it your goal to attend this festival. Even if you don't, there's still plenty of wonderful films to see, and love, and enjoy, and I'll continue to make sure I highlight my own favorites and many others from Cannes 2012. This just about wraps up our coverage, another year at the Cannes Film Festival coming to an end with the awards named.

Source: firstshowing.net