Thai writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s feature debut centers on a married couple where the wife dies of a respiratory illness and returns to a grieving husband as a vacuum cleaner.
A Useful Ghost, the debut feature from Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke that THR had featured as a hidden gem at Cannes, has won the Grand Prize at the 64th edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The absurdist fantasy comedy portrays a married couple where the wife dies of a respiratory illness caused by dust pollution, and then returns to the grieving husband as a ghost in the form of a vacuum cleaner. The Thai feature picked up the Grand Prix AMI Paris trophy as awards for the Critics Week section in Cannes were announced on Wednesday. The film stars Davika Hoorne and Witsarut Himmarat.
Also, the French Touch Prize of the Jury for best first feature went to Chechen director Deni Oumar Pitsaev for Imago, a France-Belgium co-production. And the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor went to Canada’s Theodore Pellerin for his performance in French director Pauline Loques’ Nino.
In other prize-giving, the Leitz Cine Discovery prize for a short film went to L’mina, by director Randa Maroufi. And the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution went to French distributor Le Pacte to support its release campaign for Left-Handed Girl, by director Shih-Ching Tsou and starring Shi-Yuan Ma and Janel Tsai.
In addition, the SACD Award went to Guillermo Galoe and Victor Alonso-Berbel for Sleepless City, a Spanish coming-of-age drama set in a shanty town. And the Canal+ Award for a short film went to Erogenesis, by director Xandra Popescu.
This year’s Critics Week awards jury was led by president Rodrigo Sorogoyen and included Jihane Bougrine, Josee Deshaies, Yulia Evina Bhara and Daniel Kaluuya.
