Jones, July, Jarmusch & Cannes gold

CANNES, France — Tommy Lee Jones walked away from the 58th Cannes Film Festival here Saturday night as a double winner, after his film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” won him the award as best actor, and the screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga also was honored. The movie stars Jones as a Texas cowboy who kidnaps the border patrolman (Barry Pepper) who has murdered his Mexican friend and forces him on a long journey to rebury the corpse in the man's hometown.

Another double winner was American director Miranda July, whose “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” the story of several dreamy, goofy, unlikely romances and sexual adventures, won the Camera d'Or as the best first film in any of the festival's categories. July, who wrote and starred, also won the Critics' Prize. She shared the Camera d'Or with the Sri Lankan film “The Forsaken Land,” by Vimukthi Jayasundara, about a soldier tormented by a mistaken killing.

The top prize, the Palme d'Or, went to “L'Enfant,” by the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, whose film is about a teenage couple who have a child and try to raise it while still essentially children themselves. It's the subtle story of how responsibility imposes itself on the couple almost despite themselves.

The Grand Jury Prize, or runner-up, went to the veteran American indie director Jim Jarmusch for “Broken Flowers,” which stars Bill Murray in one of his best performances, as a lonely retired millionaire who learns he might have had a child 20 years earlier, and goes on a solemn but comic search through his past, visiting women who could plausibly have been the mother.

The prize for best actress went to Hana Laszlo, an Israeli comedienne in her first dramatic role, in “Free Zone,” by Israel's Amos Gitai. She plays a cab driver who drives an American (Natalie Portman) to Jordan, on a journey during which they both make unexpected discoveries.

A Special Jury Prize went to "Shanghai Dreams," by Wang Xiaoshuai of China; it's the story of a family relocated to the provinces during the social experiments of the 1960s, and a father who wants them to return to the city.

The award for best director went to Michael Haneke for “The Hidden,” starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in the story of a family torn apart by the arrival of anonymous videos showing someone has them under surveillance.

The Palme d'Or ceremony is held with admirable brevity; the arrival of guests on the famous red-carpeted staircase lasts longer than the awards, which this year included the surprise appearance of Oscar winner Hilary Swank to join her “Million Dollar Baby” co-star and fellow Oscar winner Morgan Freeman in presenting the Palme d'Or.