Sawt Falasteen - Highlights from Cannes as film festival wraps up

The casts and directors of the 22 films selected for the main competition are anxiously waiting to hear if they have won prizes, above all the Palme d'Or for best film.

AFP looks back at some of the highlights of the last 11 days ahead of the start of the closing ceremony at 1640 GMT:

- Competition favourites -

The Palme d'Or is famously difficult to predict, but critics' favourites include dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident" and family drama "Sentimental Value" by Norway's Joachim Trier.

Trier's film earned an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation on Thursday.

"Two Prosecutors", a study of despotism by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, is also highly rated, as is Richard Linklater's "Nouvelle Vague" about French director Jean-Luc Godard.

- Red carpet dress code -

The festival began on May 13 with a flap about a new dress code which states that extravagantly large dresses are prohibited on the red carpet, as well as "total nudity".

Oscar-winner Halle Berry was the first victim, with the "Monster's Ball" star forced into a wardrobe change for the opening ceremony because her dress was too long.

Although many people seemed to flout the guidelines, Indian model and influencer Snigdha Baruah was forced to remove a flowing train from her dress having been barred by security at the VIP entrance.

- #MeToo -

After years of scandals in the film industry and pressure to take a stand, the festival announced a new #MeToo policy by barring an actor in a prominent French film from the red carpet because of rape allegations.

Theo Navarro-Mussy, who appears in "Dossier 137", denies the allegations and an initial police investigation was closed last month.

This year's gathering on the Riviera marked a step in the rehabilitation of scandal-plagued star Kevin Spacey, however, who accepted a lifetime achievement award at a charity gala.

Australian legend Nicole Kidman meanwhile issued a plea for more women directors, saying their number was still "incredibly low".

Only three women have ever won a Palme d'Or.

- Actors-turned-directors -

A trio of actors made their highly anticipated directorial debuts, with differing fortunes.

"Babygirl" actor Harris Dickinson, 28, and "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart, 35, left Cannes with praise ringing in their ears for their films, "Urchin" and "The Chronology of Water".

Reviews for Scarlett Johansson's first turn behind the camera, "Eleanor the Great", would have made for more difficult reading.

- Gaza war -

There was no escaping the war in Gaza this year. Hundreds of film figures signed an open letter on the eve of the festival calling on the movie industry to call out "genocide".

Iranian film maker Sepideh Farsi's heart-wrenching documentary about slain Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, killed in an Israeli air strike on her home in Gaza last month, left its audience in stunned silence when it premiered on May 15.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange walked the red carpet wearing a t-shirt bearing the names of killed Gaza children as he promoted a documentary about his life this week.

- Trump era -

Amid the champagne and air kisses, US President Donald Trump was also focusing minds, particularly in the Cannes film market where the deals are cut for new projects.

Trump's pledge to implement 100-percent tariffs on movies "produced in foreign lands" provoked a mixture of horror, disbelief and mockery from industry insiders.

"I can't find myself taking it very seriously. It's just too surreal," American director Wes Anderson told AFP.

"Taxi Driver" star Robert De Niro slammed "America's philistine president" in his opening ceremony speech.

- Cruise show -

Tom Cruise swept into Cannes on a steamroller of hype around "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" which premiered to mixed reviews in the first week.

Director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that Cruise -- who does his own stunts -- took his risk-taking a little far during a shoot in South Africa and could have died.

"He was laying on the wing of the plane. His arms were hanging over the front of the wing. We could not tell if he was conscious or not," said the US filmmaker.

- Palm down -

The reaction of French emergency services was one of the biggest talking points among attendees this year after a man was knocked down by a falling palm tree in a freak accident on the sea-front Cannes boulevard.

He was whisked to hospital suffering from injuries, only to be discharged several days later to return home.

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST