As the Festival de Cannes closed, jury president (and filmmaker) Emir Kusturica was quoted as saying that the films were not as good as he anticipated they would be. As reported by Reuters, he said:

"We had a selection where I think the average wasn't very high," he told a final news conference. "I felt that most of the films were a little bit less good than I expected." He said three movies could have won the coveted Palme d'Or, which eventually went to Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for "L'Enfant," a powerful, documentary-style film about a young thief who sells his own child.