The thriller, which stars Sandra Huller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death, is only the third film directed by a woman to win the top honour at the French festival.
It saw off tough competition from new films by acclaimed directors – including Wes Anderson, Todd Haynes and Karim Ainouz – to be declared the winner during the event’s closing ceremony on Saturday.
La Palme d’or est attribuée à ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE réalisé par Justine TRIET ! – The Palme d’or winner is ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE for Justine TRIET!#Cannes2023 #Palmares #Awards #PalmedOr pic.twitter.com/UCdGB7saML
— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 27, 2023
The Palme d’Or is the highest prize awarded at the festival and was introduced in 1955 by the festival’s organising committee.
Veteran actress Jane Fonda presented the award to Triet, who has previously directed 2013’s Age Of Panic and 2019’s Sibyl.
Jane Campion and Julia Ducournau, who was on this year’s jury, are the only female directors to have previously won the prize for 1993’s The Piano and 2021’s Titane respectively.
Two-time winner Ruben Ostlund, who took home the top gong last year for his satirical comedy Triangle Of Sadness after previously triumphing in 2017 with The Square, presided over this year’s jury.
The ceremony also saw Cannes’ Grand Prix go to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, an adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel of the same name about a German family living next door to Auschwitz.
Meanwhile, the jury prize went to Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, a deadpan love story about a romance that blooms in a loveless workaday world.
Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, who plays a middle-aged Tokyo man who cleans toilets in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, won the best actor award.
Turkish star Merve Dizdar took best actress for the Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses which sees her play a teacher who helps her colleague find a new perspective after he has lost of escaping his dreary life.
Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung won best director for Pot-au-Feu, love story starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel set in a 19th century French gourmet chateau.
Best screenplay was awarded to Yuji Sakamoto for Monster, which also won the Queer Palm, an honour bestowed by journalists for the festival’s strongest LGBT themed film.
Some of the festival’s biggest premieres centred around films that did not compete Palme d’Or including Martin Scorsese debuting his Osage murders epic Killers Of The Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro.
Harrison Ford received an honorary Palme d’Or ahead of the world debut screening of his new film Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
The veteran US star, 80, said he was “deeply moved and humbled” to be honoured with the accolade.
Johnny Depp also returned to the spotlight on the opening day of the film festival as his new historical drama Jeanne Du Barry premiered.
The project is his first major onscreen appearance since his high-profile defamation case with his ex-wife Amber Heard last year.