Yet even as it feeds the art houses along with the red-carpet monster (or tries to), Cannes continues to make room for films that fall outside the commercial mainstream. The greatest proof of this is unequivocally “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” the single most adventurous film in the competition. It opens with a mysterious and lovely scene of a buffalo shaking loose its tether and roaming deep into the forest, an image that might be from one of Uncle Boonmee’s past lives. It is also a metaphor for how to watch Mr. Weerasethakul’s films: You need to shake loose all your preconceived ideas about how and why movies make meaning and just plunge in.

On Saturday the Certain Regard prize went to “Ha Ha Ha,” a wistful, intricately structured comedy from the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. In a festival that tends to be crammed with films that skew toward the grave  religious fundamentalism was a recurrent theme  the humor in “Ha Ha Ha” was also a relief. The on-screen death count at Cannes tends to be high and this year the blood flowed, squirted and sprayed in films like Olivier Assayas’s “Carlos,” a portrait of the terrorist and mercenary Carlos the Jackal, which surely would have won a major award if it had been shown in competition.

Although the Certain Regard films are not part of the main competition, this section has consistently become a showcase for some of the strongest, most innovative and daring work at Cannes. Such was the case this year with a largely well-received slate that also included Manoel de Oliveira’s “Strange Case of Angelica”; Jia Zhang-ke’s “I Wish I Knew”; Jean-Luc Godard’s “Film Socialism”; and Cristi Puiu’s “Aurora.” The Certain Regard jury prize went to Daniel and Diego Vega’s “October.” (Mr. Panahi won the same award in 2003 for “Crimson Gold.”) At the Saturday afternoon awards ceremony for the Certain Regard, the leader of the jury, the French director Claire Denis, expressed particular appreciation for Mr. Oliveira’s film, saying that it had cast a bright light over the entire festival. Three actresses from the Argentine title “The Lips,” directed by Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, won a performance prize.

Rounding out the awards the Caméra d’Or, the prize for first feature, was awarded to “Año Bisiesto” by Michael Rowe. The Palme d’Or for best short film, presented by the weird duo of jury members Atom Egoyan and Michelle Rodriguez (who name-dropped “Avatar”), was awarded to “Chienne d’Histoire” (“Barking Island”), directed by Serge Avédikian. In Director’s Fortnight, one of the parallel sections at Cannes, top honors went to “Lily Sometimes,” “Le Quattro Volte” and “Illegal.” In Critics’ Week, another parallel section, the grand prize went to “Armadillo.” The independent Ecumenical Jury gave its highest award to “Of Gods and Men,” and commendations to “Poetry” and Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” The critics’ group, Fipresci, divided the love between “Tournée,” “Pal Adrienn” and “Todos Vós Sodes Capitáns” (“You Are All Captains”).