Ryan Coogler’s trophy case continues to swell as his successful debut film, Fruitvale Station took home another award. The film continues its march to award season as it was among the winners in the Un Certain Regard Awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fruitvale Station won the Avenir Prize. The big prize went to Rithy Panh‘s The Missing Picture, which explores the Pol Pot dictatorship of the 70s.
Established in 1998, the prize un certain regard (French: prix un certain regard) was introduced to the section to recognize young talent and to encourage innovative and daring works by presenting one of the films with a grant to aid its distribution in France. The jury was headed by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg and also included actresses Ludivine Sagnier and Zhang Ziyi.
SEE MORE: Fruitvale Station
Fruitvale Station follows the true story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother (Octavia Spencer), whose birthday falls on New Year’s Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to Tatiana (Ariana Neal), their beautiful four year-old daughter.
Crossing paths with friends, family, and strangers, Oscar starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easily. His resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day. Oscar’s life and tragic death would shake the Bay Area – and the entire nation – to its very core.
The film has previously won both the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and now picks up more hardware at Cannes.
Fruitvale Station opens in theaters on July 12.
Check out the trailer below:
loved the movie; yet i’m so tired of all the injustice towards our people when will the government put their foot down and step up to the plate. Are we still living in 18th – 20th century? The law needs to pay for their retributions.