The Holocaust drama “Son of Saul” received the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24.

The film, which centers on the Jewish prisoners who were forced to help the Nazis run concentration camps, took the second-place Grand Prix award behind French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s “Dheepan,” a drama about a group of Sri Lankan refugees in Paris.

Sony Pictures Classics purchased the U.S. distribution rights for “Son of Saul” during the festival. No official release date has been announced.

It is the first film for Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, who said in accepting the prize, “This continent is still haunted by this subject.”

Other films of Jewish interest at Cannes included Natalie Portman’s adaptation of Israeli novelist Amos Oz’s memoir “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man,” the documentary “Amy,” about the late Jewish singer Amy Winehouse, and the Israeli entry “Afterthought.” — jta