French director Sarah Arnold’s wild boar-fueled crime thriller Too Many Beasts (L’Espèce explosive) has taken the Europa Cinemas Label award for best European film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the organization unveiled on Thursday.
The prize, awarded for the 23rd time at Cannes, goes to the strongest European title in the Directors’ Fortnight section, and comes with the backing of the Europa Cinemas Network — 3,166 screens across 815 cities in 39 countries — including additional promotional support and exhibitor incentives to extend the film’s theatrical run.
The jury, made up of four exhibitors from the Europa Cinemas Network, praised Arnold’s debut as “a really fresh and original first feature” and “a real genre bender, encompassing action, romance, thriller, comedy and police procedural.” They singled out the film’s unpredictability as a key strength, noting that “the accessible plot consistently takes the audience in totally unexpected directions,” culminating in what they called “a delicious and crazy psychedelic-fueled roller coaster” in its final fifteen minutes.
In his review, Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer said the film calls to mind “the deadpan thrillers of the Coen brothers and the downbeat ’70s crime flicks of French helmer Alain Corneau,” while finding “clever new ways to tell a familiar story of crooked cops and small-town corruption.”
