Grief drama 'Everytime' wins Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes

Austrian director Sandra Wollner has won the Cannes Film Festival's second-tier Un Certain Regard selection on Friday with her understated family drama about grief, "Everytime."

While less globally famous than the main Competition section, winning or even being selected for Un Certain Regard is a meaningful career boost.

Past selections have included work by Sofia Coppola, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Cristian Mungiu - the latter two have films in this year's competition line-up.

Wollner used her acceptance speech to call for protecting unique personal stories in the time of artificial intelligence, which she said produces "the same of the same" to avoid risks.

"I honestly would like to hold on to those quirky, weird thoughts that maybe don't make sense in the beginning, but hopefully stay with you maybe a little longer," she said.

Everytime, Wollner's third feature, is "an exceptionally well-calibrated study of an untimely death and its aftermath," wrote entertainment outlet ScreenDaily in its review.

The animated French film Iron Boy took home the special jury prize, while Marina De Tavira, Daniela Marin Navarro, and Mariangel Villegas shared the best actress prize for the Costa Rica-set Forever Your Maternal Animal.

Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won best actor for Congo Boy, a drama about a teenager in the Central African Republic who dreams of a music career amid a civil war.