Prizes in three of the eight categories went to French film-makers, another went to an actor who speaks some of his lines in French and the Palme d'Or went to a director who has made some of his best-known films in French.
That would be Austrian director Michael Haneke, whose The White Ribbon marked a return to German-language film-making for the director of Cache.
Impeccably made and set in a kind of Village of the Damned in northern Germany in the years before World War 1, this controlled black-and-white venture (which also won the Fipresci international critics prize) is as disturbing underneath as it is seemingly placid on the surface.
The two most popular awards went to French films.
Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, by general consensus the best film of the festival, received the Grand Prix, considered Cannes' runner-up prize.
Made with the film-maker's trademark emotional intensity and ability to elevate traditional genre material to exceptional heights, Audiard's complex story of a young Arab man's coming of age and into power during six years inside a corrupt, brutal prison got sustained applause when its title was announced.
Also a crowd-pleasing choice was a Special Prize, kind of a lifetime achievement award, which went to 87-year-old director Alain Resnais.
His film Wild Grass was as sophisticated and visually playful as the man himself.
Taking the best-actress award was Charlotte Gainsbourg, more popular in France than her film, Lars von Trier's violent Antichrist, looks to be.
In tears, Gainsbourg thanked her mother, actress Jane Birkin, and her father, the late singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
Quentin Tarantino's World War 2 fantasia Inglourious Basterds won the best-actor prize for Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi colonel fluent in four languages.
Cherien Dabis' Sundance hit, Amreeka, the poignant yet pointed story of a Palestinian family's uncertain reaction to moving to the United States, took the Fipresci prize for Directors' Fortnight.
Another English-language film that did well was Australian director Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah, which won the Camera d'Or for best first film.
Andrea Arnold's British Fish Tank, the story of a sullen 15-year-old and her dead-end life, shared the Jury Prize with South Korean director Park Chan-wook's vampire film, Thirst.
That selection was one of several choices that reflected the jury's thirst for darkness over light.
Philippine director Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay, a story of a kidnapping and its bloody aftermath - and perhaps the competition's least popular film - walked off with the best-director award.
Also unpopular with festival-goers was the choice of the messy Chinese relationship film, Lou Ye's Spring Fever, for best screenplay for writer Feng Mei.
The most pleasant surprise of the festival, although not in competition, was A Town Called Panic, a wacky stop-motion animated feature by Belgian film-makers Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar
- Kenneth Turan
