June 23, 2017 - 21:32 AMT
“Strange Ones,” “Jean of Joneses” win Champs-Elysees Fest prizes

“The Strange Ones”, the mystery thriller starring Alex Pettyfer, Stella Meghie’s biting comedy drama “Jean of the Joneses’ and Loïc Paillard’s feature debut “Les etoiles restantes” won the top prizes at the sixth edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, Variety said.

Directed by Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff, “The Strange Ones” won the American Independent Jury Prize. The movie previously won the special jury award at South by Southwest.

The American Independent Jury’s special mention went to “Jean of the Joneses,” which opened at South by Southwest and played Toronto. “Jean of the Joneses,” a portrait of squabbling Jamaican-American family, also won the Audience Award for an American Feature Film as well as Variety’s Coup de Coeur Award.

Meanwhile, “Les etoiles restantes” won the Audience Award for a French Feature Film, the Student Jury Prize and Titrafilm’s “Coup de Cœur” Award.

Kogonada’s romantic comedy-drama “Columbus” about a Korean-born man who finds himself stuck in Indiana where his father is in a coma, won the Student Jury Prize for an American Feature.

Léonor Serraille’s “Jeune Femme,” the winner of this year’s Cannes’s Camera d’Or, scooped the French Independent Jury Prize.

Presided by American director Randal Kleiser and French writer Pierre Lemaitre, the jury included Lolita Chammah, Lola Créton, Vincent Dedienne, Jérémie Elkaïm, Camélia Jordana, Gustave Kervern and Karidja Touré.

Created by Sophie Dulac, a French producer, distributor and exhibitor, with the aim of showcasing the diversity of French and American films, the Champs Elysees Film Festival boasts two competitive sections for French and American films. This year’s competition lineup of U.S. pics were Mike Ott’s “California Dreams,” Theo Anthony’s “Rat Film,” Dash Shaw’s “My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea,” “The Strange Ones,” “Jean of the Joneses” and “Columbus.”

The French competition section, launched this year, included Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita’s “Bonheur Academie,” Berni Goldblat’s “Wallay,” Océanerosemarie and Cyprien Vial’s “Embrasse moi!,’ Benjamin Diouris’s Merrick, “Jeune Femme,” and “Les etoiles restantes.”

The festival, which ran June 15-22, wrapped with the screening of Roger Michell’s “My Cousin Rachel” with Michell in attendance.