Steve McQueen, Winner of the Camera D'Or

Some applauded the seriousness and politically charged atmosphere of this year's biggest movie event: the 61st Cannes Film Festival. Others spoke of programmers audibly 'scraping the barrel' in order to fill the festival's two week schedule. When do people ever agree about such things, and can critics ever agree about anything anyway?

The festival jury, headed by Sean Penn, stated at the opening ceremony, that they wanted their response to the films selected at this year's festival to be informed by "the world they live in" - read political, relevant, committed. Many commentators have understood this to mean that Soderbergh's Che or Israeli animation Waltz with Bashir, will run away with tonight's biggest accolade, the Palme D'Or. At least for now, we here at Screenrush are not so sure...

The festival is coming to a close this evening, in a star-studded closing ceremony attended by a vast array of celebrities, from Catherine Deneuve to young Kosovan actress, Arta Dobrishi.

The contenders for this year's Palme D'Or were an illustrious bunch: some of them are old faces at Cannes, others are real newcomers. Steven Soderbergh, who won the coveted award for his feature debut Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989, and the Dardenne Brothers (who've won the award twice) are old hands. But the first winner of the evening, British filmmaker Steve McQueen who has won the Camera D'Or (a prize for first time feature directors) for his harrowing, brave and moving film, Hunger, is a newcomer on the Cannes scene.

More awards are being announced as we write! Who's it going to be?!