'Tree of Life' wins top honor at Cannes

American director Terrence Malick's expansive drama "The Tree of Life" won the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival Sunday, while Kirsten Dunst took the best-actress prize for the apocalyptic saga "Melancholia." The Palme d'Or prize was accepted Sunday by two "Tree of Life" producers, Dede Gardner and Bill Pohlad, for the press-shy Malick, who has skipped all public events at the glamorous Cannes festival.

Malick is "infamously shy and low profile . . . [but] I know he would be thrilled with this," Pohlad said.

"The Tree of Life," which opens Friday in the United States, stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain in a story of family life that plays out against a cosmic backdrop, including visuals of the creation of the universe and the era of dinosaurs.

Dunst won for her role in the end-of-the-world tale "Melancholia," whose director, Denmark's Lars von Trier, was banned from the festival after sympathetic remarks for Adolf Hitler at a movie news conference.

"Wow, what a week it's been," said Dunst, who plays a deeply depressed woman coping with her family's foibles as a rogue planet bears down on a possible collision course with Earth.

"It's an honor that is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for an actress," said Dunst, who thanked festival organizers for allowing "Melancholia" to remain in the competition after von Trier's Nazi remarks and offered warm words for her director. "I want to thank Lars for giving me the opportunity to be so brave." Von Trier was not allowed to attend yesterday's ceremony.

Jean Dujardin claimed the best-actor prize for the silent film "The Artist," in which he plays a 1920s Hollywood star whose career crumbles as talking pictures become the norm. In keeping with his singing, hoofing character, Dujardin did a little dance as he took to the Cannes stage.

Prizes were awarded by a nine-member jury headed by Robert De Niro that included actors Uma Thurman and Jude Law.