German comedy is favourite to win top Cannes prize for woman director

Actor Willem Dafoe, right and Giada Colagrande pose for photographers upon arrival at the awards ceremony for the 69th international film festival, Cannes. (Photo: AP)

The Cannes film festival ends Sunday with a German comedy, a movie about a bus driver poet and a Romanian meditation on morality the favourites to lift its top prize, the Palme d’Or.

After nearly two weeks of stars, scandals and some stirring films at the world’s most important cinema showcase, it is now up to the nine-member celebrity jury led by Mad Max creator George Miller to decide which picture will triumph.

If Berlin-based Maren Ade wins with Toni Erdmann about an uptight executive trying to deal with her off-the-wall prankster father, she will become only the second woman to lift the prize.

She would also be the first German to win since Wim Wenders in 1984 for Paris, Texas.

American indie legend Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson also has the vote of many critics, with Star Wars actor Adam Driver swapping his Imperial Tie fighter for a New Jersey public bus.

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu — who took the Palme in 2007 — won over many too with Graduation, about a fat-her’s dilemma over how to educate his daughter to deal with a corrupt world.

But an incendiary closing film from 77-year-old Dutch-born Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven could yet overturn the predictions.

His Elle — a twisted rape thriller about a powerful woman’s strange relationship with her attacker — brought the main competition to a highly contentious end Saturday.

While French actress Isabelle Huppert’s performance as the woman was hailed as the best of her four-decade-long career, some were queasy about its “unacceptable... Lasciviously dark” premise.

“One can already hear screams of bloody murder about the unacceptable link between rape and pleasure,” the French website L’Express wrote.

Up until Huppert and Verhoeven’s electrifying jolt, some leading critics were underwhelmed by the main competition, complaining of a lack of masterpieces.

“This has been by a very disappointing Cannes ov-erall,” said Todd McCar-thy, of trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter.

“Only two or three films in the competition of the 15 I’ve seen were really worth the trip,” he said, picking out Toni Erdm-ann and Graduation.

The German comedy “hits so many unusual notes,” he said in an online video post. “It’s funny, it’s witty and it has strange odd moments you can never expect so it keeps you on your toes.”

The film fest will begin at 6.30 pm France time (10 pm IST).