The Cannes Film Festival pulled it off in its 60th year, picking a popular winner from an eclectic competition lineup that had many more hits than misses. The annual movie extravaganza also attracted a string of big Hollywood stars to its red carpet, always key to a festival’s success, and reports of a healthy crop of new film deals signed on the margins meant 2007 would go down as a vintage Cannes.

“The Cannes film story this year has been one of selflessness”, said film critic and historian Mark Cousins. “I can’t remember that coming across as strongly before, so I think it’s been a great Cannes.” Romanian entry 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days walked away with the Palme d’Or for best film out of 22 in the main competition, a popular choice after critics had raved about its hard-hitting story simply but powerfully told.

A further sign of the growing stature of Romanian cinema, the movie follows student friends Otilia and Gabita as they are ruthlessly exploited when one goes to have an illegal abortion.

Yet despite being set in the pitiless and colourless landscape of socialist Eastern Europe, the story underlines the lengths to which friends go to save each other. The choice was a rare example of the jury and the wider audience of journalists and critics agreeing on the Palme d’Or winner.

There will also be few complaints about other winners. The Grand Prix runner-up prize went to the acclaimed The Mourning Forest, a lyrical Japanese movie about mourning and grief directed by Naomi Kawase.

Best director was Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the true story of French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a stroke and was paralysed yet managed to write a book using one eyelid to communicate.

Best screenplay was awarded to German-Turkish director and writer Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven, a cross-border story of love and reconciliation, while best actor was Konstantin Lavronenko from Russian Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Banishment. Best actress was Jeon Do-yeon for South Korean competition entry Secret Sunshine.

One complaint heard along the palm-lined Croisette this year has been that Cannes is too big for its own good, with thousands of journalists packing screenings and press conferences and too many stars jostling for media attention.

Cannes veterans wondered if, for example, Leonardo DiCaprio should be asked to the festival to showcase his environmental documentary The 11th Hour when it seemed to be more about having a famous face in town than the quality of the film.

Cannes too big? </B>