CANNES, France - Japan's Tao Okamoto and Belgian-French performer Virginie Efira won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, with Okamoto becoming the first Japanese actress to receive the recognition.
They both starred in the film "All of a Sudden," or "Soudain" in French, directed by Oscar-winning Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The film depicts a theater director battling cancer, played by Okamoto, and a care facility director, played by Efira, who form a deep friendship.
The movie, set to premier in Japan on June 19, is based on a book of letters about illness and death exchanged between a philosopher and an anthropologist.
Standing side by side on stage to receive the award, Okamoto and Efira embraced, overwhelmed with joy.
Okamoto thanked director Hamaguchi for his "love and respect" that pushed her forward during the filming, saying that the award is more than she could have dreamed of.
She established herself as a fashion model before her acting career took off in the 2013 U.S. superhero film "The Wolverine."
Efira, who was a TV presenter before appearing in films like thriller "Elle," also struck a similar note, describing the moviemaking as an indescribable experience that she will not forget.
During the shooting of the film that has a mixture of Japanese and French conversations, director Hamaguchi focused on capturing the natural reactions that people create when conversing with each other.
Hamaguchi said Okamoto and Efira played their characters in the film as if carrying the souls of the authors of the original book, adding that the Cannes festival acknowledged their accomplishments by awarding the two the prize.
At the festival, which was held at a venue facing the Mediterranean Sea, the prestigious Palme d'Or was awarded to "Fjord," a film by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu about a Romanian-Norwegian couple who resettle in a village and form a bond with their neighbors.
Hamaguchi won best screenplay at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and best international feature at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022 for "Drive My Car," which depicts a widowed stage actor and director navigating waves of grief following his wife's sudden death.
Hirokazu Koreeda's "Sheep in the Box" and Koji Fukada's "Nagi Notes" were among the films selected to compete for the prestigious award at the Cannes festival but did not win.
Koreeda's film is about a grieving couple who take in a humanoid robot that looks and sounds like their deceased son. Fukada depicts an artist named Yoriko and her former sister-in-law, Yuri, who is an architect, and their struggle to let go of the past.
