Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes Jury Prize winner “Fallen Leaves” has snagged the 2023 Intl. Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) Grand Prix for best film of the past year. All films released after July 1 2022 were eligible.
The Fipresci Grand Prix will be presented to Kaurismäki at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s opening night gala ceremony on Sept. 22, a tradition that dates back to 1999. “Fallen Leaves” will also play in San Sebastian’s Perlak best of fests section.
Chosen by 669 Fipresci members from three finalists — the other two were “The Banshees of Inisherin,” by Martin McDonagh, and “Tár,” by Todd Field – “Fallen Leaves’” triumph reflects the general critical rapture with which the film was greeted at Cannes, though Variety didn’t join the party.
This is the second time that Kaurismäki will have received this recognition from the international critics, which went in 2017 to
“The Other Side of Hope.”
The fourth part in Kaursimaki’s working class quartet, following “Shadows in Paradise,” “Ariel” and “The Match Factory Girl,” “Fallen Leaves” turns on two lonely people, Ansa, a supermarket worker who loses her job for handing out past its sell-by date food to a homeless person, and Holappa, a construction worker who’s often befuddled by drink and so losing his job. They slowly start to fall for each other until Ansa delivers an ultimatum: Holappa must choose between the drink and her.
Hailed by most critics for Kaurismäki’s hallmarks – the deadpan humor, the lapidary, but quirky one liners – and the Finnish director’s staying his auteurist course for the last 30 years, “Fallen Leaves,” sold by The Match Factory, was picked up by TMF parent MUBI for major markets including North America following its well-received debut in Cannes. It also pre-sold healthily.