It’s been a tumultuous year at Cannes, and today’s surprising awards ceremony certainly made for a fitting ending to this year’s festivities. Festival head Thierry Fremaux got lots of criticism thrown at him for his picks this year, which went heavy on French films, but this year’s festival jury—headed by Joel and Ethan Coen—had lots of love for the French selections. Best Actor went to Vincent Lindon for The Measure Of a Man, and Emmanuelle Bercot got a shared Best Actress prize for her turn in Maiwenn’s Mon Roi.

But the biggest surprise came when Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan was announced as the winner of the Palme D’Or. Audiard is a fine director (many of us here are fans of A Prophet, which got him the Grand Prix back in 2009), but critics were mostly sour on Dheepan, criticizing it for a startling turn in the final act that didn’t work for most people. And people were shocked that the two critically adored films in this year’s competition, Todd Haynes’ Carol and Hou Hsaio-hsien’s The Assassin, didn’t wind up taking home the big prizes; Hsaio-hsien won Best Director (considering how much of the film was praised for its gorgeous visuals, this sounds pretty deserving), and Carol got a Best Actress prize for Rooney Mara. But with Carol receiving a nice, Oscar-friendly release date in December from Harvey Weinstein, and The Assassin already bought up for US distribution, this certainly won’t be the last we’ll hear of these two films.

The only predictable outcome this year was Son of Saul winning the Grand Prix, which people assumed would be taking home a prize after it screened to a strong reception. It’s an impressive win, considering this is director Laszlo Nemes’ first feature, and it should have a nice tour around the festival circuit for the rest of the year. Another slight shocker was Michel Franco winning Best Screenplay for Chronic, but that might only come as a shock to anyone who’s seen his previous films; he’s a filmmaker known more for his directorial skills, and it sounds like critics were baffled by his win.

Read on below for the full list of winners, and expect to see a good chunk of these films get some sort of release throughout 2015 and 2016. While we only got the chance to see a few films this year, including Jury Prize winner The Lobster, we’re eager to check all these winners out once they play closer to home. Until then, all we can do is wait until we do it all over again next May.

2015 Cannes Winners

Camera D’Or (Best First Feature): La Tierra Y La Sombra

Best Screenplay: Chronic

Best Actress: Rooney Mara, Carol; Emmanuelle Bercot, Mon Roi

Jury Prize: The Lobster

Best Actor: Vincent London, The Measure Of A Man

Best Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Assassin

Grand Jury Prize: Son Of Saul

Palme D’Or: Dheepan

Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure announced this morning the films that will play at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. This comes just days after announcing the opening film Emmanuelle Bercot‘s La Tete Haute. Premiering at the festival this year will be Paolo Sorrentino‘s The Early Years, Todd Haynes‘ 1950’s romantic drama Carol (starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara), Woody Allen‘s Irrational Man, and Yorgos Lanthimos‘ highly anticipated follow-up to Dogtooth called The Lobster. Also playing will be Pixar’s animated film Inside Out, Gus Van Sant‘s Sea of Trees (starring Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts) and a special screening of Natalie Portman‘s A Tale of Love and Darkness.

While the bulk of competition and out-of-competition titles were announced, a few more films are expected be added to the lineup over the next few weeks. The Cannes Film Festival this year runs from May 13th – May 24th.

Opening Film

Standing Tall (La Tete Haute), Emmanuelle Bercot

Competition

Carol, Todd Haynes
Macbeth, Justin Kurzel
Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
La Loi du March, Stephane Brize
Marguerite and Julien, Valerie Donzelli
The Tale of Tales, Matteo Garrone
The Assassin, Hou Hsiao Hsien
Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke
Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Koreeda
The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos
Mon roie, Maiwenn
Mia Madre, Nanni Moretti
Son of Saul, Laszlo Nemes
Youth, Paulo Sorrentino
Louder Than Bombs, Joachim Trier
Sea of Trees, Gus Van Sant
Sicario, Denis Villeneuve

Out of Competition

Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller
Inside Out, Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Irrational Man, Woody Allen
The Little Prince, Mark Osborne

Special Screenings

A Tale of Love and Darkness, Natalie Portman
Asphalte, Samuel Benchetrit
Panama, Pavle Vuckovic
Amnesia, Barbet Schroeder
Hayored Lema’Ala, Elad Keidan
Oka, Souleymane Cisse

Midnight Screenings

Amy, Asif Kapadia
Office, Hong Won-Chan

Un Certain Regard

Madonna, Shin Suwon
Maryland, Anna Winocour
The Fourth Direction, Gurvinder Singh
Masaan (Fly Away Solo), Neeraj Ghaywan
Hruter (Rams), Grimur Hakonarson
Kishibe No Tabi (Journey to the Shore), Kiyoshi
Je Suis Un Soldat (I Am a Soldier), Laurent Larivere
Zvizdan (The High Sun), Dalibor Matanic
The Other Side, Roberto Minervini
One Floor Below, Radu Muntean
Shameless, Oh Seung-Uk
The Chosen Ones, David Pablos
Nahid, Ida Panahandeh
The Treasure, Corneliu Porumboiu

Polisse, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, is a very hectic film. Subplots come and go at an alarmingly fast rate, the main cast comprises of almost a dozen characters with each one being focused on at random times and the amount of ground the film covers is earning it comparisons to television shows like The Wire and Law and Order. There is so much going on in Polisse that at times it feels like director/co-writer/co-star Maïwenn is flailing around trying to save herself from letting the movie drown her. Most of what keeps Polisse so involving is seeing whether or not the film will collapse on itself, and it’s somewhat remarkable that Maïwenn is able to mostly succeed by the end.

For the most part Polisse is episodic and (intentionally) plays out like a documentary. We’re shown the daily ins and outs of the Child Protection Unit in Paris. We’re treated to different cases the Unit is working on that range from being amusing to downright disturbing. We get some brief glimpses into the personal lives of some of the officers whether it’s seeing them at home with their families or watching their problems spill out in their work. There’s only one major plotline involving Melissa (Maïwenn), a photographer who’s assigned to do a series on the unit by the government. She slowly starts getting accepted into the group of officers she’s following and eventually strikes up a relationship with one officer (Joey Starr).

The bulk of the film is made up of the various cases that the Unit handles throughout a typical day of work. These vignettes are where Polisse mostly shines. Maïwenn co-wrote the script with Emmanuelle Bercot and the film opens with a title card stating that some scenes are directly lifted from real-life cases the CPU has encountered. It’s hard not to believe that claim since some of the crimes the officers encounter are so bizarre that it would be impossible to make up. Maïwenn pulls no punches with the material either, presenting everything with the same documentary-like indifferent approach. Pedophilia, rape, abortion, kidnapping and other topics are dealt with but the camera never flinches at either one of them since it’s merely part of the job.

Where Maïwenn seems to have her greatest strength is with the cast. Coming from an acting background herself it makes sense that she would end up being more of an actor’s director, and it’s evident throughout. With everything happening in Polisse at such a fast rate, every character in the main cast is able to stand out and work together as an ensemble. There are a lot of confrontations that come perilously close to being nothing more than cheesy melodrama, but the cast is good enough to keep things scaled back enough so that it’s great drama to watch unfolding on screen.

What keeps Polisse from being something truly great is Maïwenn’s attempts to dig deeper into the characters’ lives. Because of the large cast and episodic nature of the movie, the most she can get out of the personal lives of the CPU officers is that it’s hard to remove themselves from their work when they come home. This kind of “revelation” isn’t exactly hard to get, so the scenes where the same point is hammered home fall flat. Unfortunately Maïwenn decides to end things with a big character moment that’s more laughable than profound. When Polisse sticks to its realistic fly-on-the-wall approach to the CPU it’s some of the best filmmaking from this year, but its poor attempts to make the film more of a character piece hold it back from being truly great.