Cannes: ‘How to Have Sex’ wins best film in 2023 Un Certain Regard

Molly Manning Walker’s Cannes Film Festival debut How to have sex won the Best Film award in the Un Certain Regard section of 2023. The incredible debut, which follows three British teenagers off on a summer holiday in Greece that goes dark, was The Hollywood ReporterThe hidden gem of chooses this Cannes and was among the most talked about films on the Croisette this year.

Four African films also took home awards at the Un Certain Regard ceremony on Friday night. Asmae El Moudir won the Un Certain Regard Best Director award for her hybrid documentary, The mother of all lies, a search for the truth behind his family’s stories of the 1981 bread riots in Morocco. Kamal Lazraq won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for Hounds, a crime drama set in the suburbs of Casablanca. Omen, the directorial debut of Belgian-Congolese hip-hop artist Baloji, won the New Voice Award for Best First Feature. Sudanese drama Hi Giulia by director Mohamed Kordofani — another debut — won the Un Certain Regard Freedom Award. African cinema, often overlooked or ignored at Cannes, took pride of place at this year’s festival, with a record number of films in the official lineup.

The Un Certain Regard Award for Best Ensemble went to the Brazilian drama Buriti’s flower by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. The film traces the story of the indigenous Krahô tribe and their decades-long struggle for land rights.

American actor John C. Reilly presided over this year’s Un Certain Regard judging panel, which also included French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, Franco-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and the Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne.