More on the 2012 Cannes cream of the crop

Cannes jury members Andrea Arnold, President Nanni Moretti, Raoul Peck and Diane Kruger

With the final winners at the Cannes Film Festival revealed, here's some more on some of them:

The Palme d'Or goes to Michael Haneke's "Amour," a selection presaged by the discussion of the film by Variety critics Justin Chang and Peter Debruge earlier this week. A trailer for the film appears at the bottom of this post. 

Haneke, who won the same prize in 2009 for "The White Ribbon," became the first director ever to win the Palme d'Or twice in such a short span, reports Chang. 

Matteo Garrone's "Reality" won the Cannes Grand Prix. Here is Jay Weissberg's review of the film for Variety. Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the U.S. rights to the pic. Garrone is also a repeat winner, having garnered the Grand Prix in 2008 for "Gommorah."

Benh Zeitlin, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes today for first-time film with "Beasts of the Southern Wild", was one of the Variety 10 Directors to Watch in January. Click here to read his profile. "Beasts," as noted this weekend, also followed up its Sundance grand jury prize with Un Certain Regard honors at Cannes. Debruge reviewed the film here.  A trailer for the film also appears at the bottom of this post. 

Ken Loach, whose "The Angels' Share" (reviewed for Variety by Leslie Felperin) has nabbed the Jury Prize, was featured most recently in Variety in this piece by Adam Dawtrey about how he and producer Rebecca O'Brien have carved out a business model to sustain his distinctive filmmaking approach. 

Cristian Mungiu, winner of the screenplay award for "Beyond the Hills," won the Palme d'Or in 2007 for "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." In addition, "Beyond the Hills" netted shared actress honors for Casmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. Justin Chang's review of "Hills" is here.

Carlos Reygadas took director honors for "Post Tenebras Lux." Here is Weissberg's Variety review of that film.

Actor kudos were bestowed upon Mads Mikkelsen for "The Hunt" (reviewed here by Boyd Van Hoeij). Mikkelsen has made the news this week for different reasons as well – he's in talks for a much more mainstream role in "Thor 2."

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"Amour"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"