Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s comedy-drama A Useful Ghost has won the Grand Prix in the independent Critics’ Week sidebar in Cannes. The film was
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s comedy-drama A Useful Ghost has won the Grand Prix in the independent Critics’ Week sidebar in Cannes.
The film was chosen by a jury led by president Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and fellow jurors Jihane Bougrine, Josée Deshaies, Yulina Evina Bhara and Daniel Kaluuya.
Scroll down for the full list of prizes
Set in Thailand, Boonbunchachoke’s debut feature centres on a man grieving the loss of his wife to dust pollution. He discovers that she has been reincarnated in a vacuum cleaner, which leads to their bond rekindling.
Written by Boonbunchachoke, the film is produced by Cattleya Paosrijeroen and Soros Sukhum for Thailand’s 185 Films and Tsixtysix, in co-production with France’s Haut Les Mains Productions, Germany’s Mayana Films and Singapore’s Momo Film Co. Best Friend Forever handles world sales.
Documentary Imago took the jury prize. Directed by Deni Oumar Pitsaev, the film follows a man who returns to the village where he was born, just across the Chechen border, where senior feuds and family dramas are buried.
It is produced by Alexandra Melot for France’s Triptyque Films, in co-production with Belgium’s Need Productions.
The Rising Star award, presented by the Louis Roederer Foundation, went to Pauline Loques’s Nino; with partner awards going to Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, produced by Sean Baker, and Guillermo Galoe and Victor Alons-Berbel, the writers of Sleepless City.
The awards for the Official Selection will be handed out in the festival ceremony on Saturday, May 24.
Cannes Critics’ Week 2025 prizes
Grand Prix – A Useful Ghost, dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Jury prize – Imago, dir. Deni Oumar Pitsaev
Rising Star award – Nino, dir. Pauline Loques
Short film prize – L’mina, dir. Randa Maroufi
Partner prizes
SACD award – Guillermo Galoe, Victor Alonso-Berbel for Sleepless City
Canal+ award – Erogenesis dir. Xandra Popescu
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