Congratulations to Terrence Malick and the Fox Searchlight team on the occasion of The Tree of Life winning the Palme d’Or this evening at the conclusion of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. Fine, okay. No quibbles from this corner.

The jury wiggled out of the Melancholia problem (i.e., would they wimp out over the fallout from Lars von Trier‘s Nazi comments?) by giving Melancholia star Kirsten Dunst the Best Actress award. In so doing they showed they weren’t ignoring Von Trier’s film but blew him off personally as well as the film, and thereby avoided pissing off the Cannes Film Festival organizers…a perfect compromise. Very skillful diplomacy.

The Grand Prix went to Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne‘s very minor The Kid With a Bike.

Nicolas Winding Refn won the Best Director award for Drive…richly deserved, very cool.

The jury prize went to Polisse; Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar took the screenplay honors for Footnote and thereby disappointed or angered many Cannes journalists. Not me — I didn’t get around to seeing Footnote or Polisse..sorry.

Here’s a sharp, well-written analysis with quotes from winners and jurors from Deadline‘s Pete Hammond.