During the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Hollywood actor Jane Fonda flung an award certificate at director Justine Triet's back.
The 85-year-old actor was presenting the Palme d'Or award to French director Justine Triet for her thriller "Anatomy of the Fall". After accepting the award, the director unintentionally left the scroll at the podium.
Ms Fonda attempted to flag her down, reported Page Six. She hurried to grab the attention of the director. When Ms Triet didn't hear, Ms Fonda became exasperated and flung the certificate at the director when she was walking away. The scroll hit Ms Triet's back of the head and it soon thudded to the floor behind her.
The video of the incident has gone viral on the internet.
Check out the video here:
The internet praised Ms Fonda's star move and called the actor a "queen" with an "excellent shot."
The legendary actor recalled the first time she came to Cannes in 1963.
"The last time I came (to the festival) was 1963, a lot of you weren't even born yet... There were no women directors competing at that time and it never occurred to us there was something wrong with that... We have progressed, but we have a long way to go." Still, she noted, perhaps presaging what was about to transpire, "We have to celebrate change when it happens. This year is the first time there are seven women directors in competition," as per Deadline.
Ms Triet has become the third woman to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She joined Jane Campion (1993's The Piano), and, more recently, Julia Ducournau who won for Titane in 2021. The award ceremony was held on Saturday.
Ms Triet was emphatic in her acceptance speech and addressed the recent social unrest in France over retirement age reforms.
She said, "This year, our country has experienced a historic dispute... This dispute was denied and suppressed in a shocking manner, and this pattern of increasingly uninhibited dominating power is breaking out in several areas; obviously socially is where it is the most shocking, but we also see it in all spheres of society, and the cinema is no exception. The commodification of culture that the neo-liberal government is defending is breaking the French cultural exception. I dedicate this prize to all young female and male directors and to those who today are unable to make films. We see ourselves making room for them, this place that I took 15 years ago in a world that was a little less hostile which still considered it possible to make mistakes and start over," as per Deadline.
