CANNES, France — The Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or at the 71st Cannes Film Festival for his superb “Shoplifters,” about a family of thieves and throwaways living on the margins in Japan.

Mr. Kore-eda accepted the award, the festival’s highest honor, at the end of a sober event that was shaken up 30 minutes in when the Italian director Asia Argento delivered a shattering rebuke to the festival and the movie industry from the stage.

“In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground,” Ms. Argento said. She predicted he would never again be welcomed here by a film community that once embraced and enabled him.

The fierce, unwavering Ms. Argento added that there were those in the auditorium who needed to be held accountable for their conduct toward women. “You know who you are,” she said, “but, most importantly, we know who you are, and we are not going to allow you to get away with it any longer.”