Jane Fonda must have learned how to throw a laser from Tom Brady while making 80 For Brady because she showed off surprising skill at the Cannes International Film Festival closing awards ceremony on Sunday. After presenting the Palme d’Or to Anatomy of a Fall filmmaker Justine Triet, Fonda threw the rolled certificate at the director who forgot to take it. Triet became just the third female director to receive the festival’s top prize.
Fonda, 85, praised the film festival for its progress in adding diverse voices to the competition, noting that seven movies that competed for the Palme were directed by women. She then announced Triet’s film was the winner. Triet then accepted the award but forgot to take the accompanying scroll with her when she met the jury. Fonda then tossed the scroll, hitting Triet in the back of the head.
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Anatomy of a Fall stars Sandra Hรผller (Toni Erdmann) as a German writer who tries to prove her innocence after she is arrested for the murder of her husband. Triet wrote the script with Arthur Harari. It is Triet’s third film, following Age of Panic (2013), In Bed with Victoria (2016) and Sybil (2019). Neon snapped up North American distribution rights. The distributor also had success releasing previous Palme winners Parasite (2019), Titane (2021) and Triangle of Sadness (2022).
This year’s Cannes juryย was led by Triangle of Sadness director Ruben รstlund and included Hollywood stars, Paul Dano and Brie Larson.Merve Dizdar (About Dry Grasses) won Best Actress, while Kลji Yakusho (Perfect Days) won Best Actor. Aki Kaurismรคki’s Fallen Leaves won the Jury Prize, and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest won the Grand Prix award.
Fonda was also in Cannes for the “Rendevous with Jane Fonda” event, in which she made candid comments about her incredible career. The two-time Oscar-winner said Robert Redford never liked to kiss and was often in a bad mood when they worked together. Fonda added that she doesn’t have any projects lined up in the immediate future, and hopes instead to focus on fighting climate change.
“We still have reason to be hopeful if we do everything right. But I’m saying this is serious,” Fonda explained, reports Deadline. “We’ve got about seven, eight years to cut ourselves in half of what we use of fossil fuels. And unfortunately, the people that have the least responsibility for it are hit the hardest โ Global South, people on islands, poor people of color. It is a tragedy that we have to absolutely stop. We have to arrest and jail those men โ they’re all men โ [responsible for the crisis].”
Fonda sees the fight against climate change as a fight against patriarchy and racism as well. “It’s important because we have to get out of the silos โ feminists over here, environmentalists over here,” Fonda said. “That’s what I learned when I started being an activist around the Vietnam War. The more you go down any issue, whatever it is, you realize that it’s all connected. And if we solve the climate crisis and we haven’t solved those other things, we’re gonna be in trouble.”
