Secrets & Lies
Drawing primarily from our 35mm collection, we are presenting an exquisite spring bouquet of Palme d’or winners to coincide with the can’t-miss Cannes Film Festival.
Winner of the Palme d'or, 1996 Cannes Film Festival
Following the death of her adoptive mother, Hortense, a young Black optician, is surprised to discover that her biological mother, Cynthia, is white and has a 20-year-old daughter. The film, carried by phenomenal acting, brilliantly shifts between pain, joy, and unease as Cynthia’s already fragile family struggles to come to terms with this news.
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh is an English writer-director trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School. His first feature film Bleak Moments (1971) won the Gold Leopard at Locarno Film Festival and the Golden Hugo at Chicago in 1972. His films have been in Competition at Cannes five times, winning the Palme d’Or for Secrets & Lies (1996), and the Best Director prize for Naked (1993). Timothy Spall also won the festival’s Best Actor prize for his eponymous role in Mr. Turner (2014). Meanwhile Vera Drake (2004) won Venice Film Festival‘s Golden Lion for Best Film and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) secured Sally Hawkins the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Actress. Across his career, Mike’s films have collected 25 BAFTA nominations and seven wins, as well as 16 Academy Awards nods and two wins. In 2015, he scooped the BAFTA Fellowship, their highest honour. His actors have garnered nods for their performances, and almost all of his HODs have been garlanded for their respective crafts. He has also written and directed over 20 stage plays.
Bio: Métropole Films
