Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic book however devastating Brooklyn odyssey a couple of intercourse employee who marries the son of a rich Russian oligarch, has received the Cannes Movie Pageant’s high award, the Palme d’Or.
Baker accepted the prize along with his film’s star, Mikey Madison, watching within the viewers on the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a brand new excessive level for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s additionally, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or received by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and final 12 months’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”
“I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” mentioned Baker.
Whereas “Anora” was arguably essentially the most acclaimed movie of the pageant, its win was a slight shock. Many anticipated both the light Indian drama “All We Imagine As Light” or the Iranian movie “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” to win. Each of these movies additionally took residence prizes.
It wasn’t the one shock of the closing ceremony, although. Earlier than George Lucas was given an honorary Palme d’Or, his outdated pal and generally collaborator Francis Ford Coppola appeared to current it to him, reuniting two of essentially the most pivotal figures of the final half-century of American moviemaking.
VALERY HACHE by way of Getty Photos
“All We Imagine As Light,” about sisterhood in fashionable Mumbai, received the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor. Payal Kapadia’s second characteristic was the primary Indian in competitors in Cannes in 30 years.
The jury awarded a particular prize to Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a drama made secretly in Iran. Days forward of the movie’s premiere, Rasoulof, dealing with an eight-year jail sentence, fled Iran on foot. His movie, which incorporates actual footage from the 2022-2023 demonstrations in Iran, channels Iranian oppression right into a household drama. The Cannes crowd met an emotional Rasoulof with a prolonged standing ovation.
Coralie Fargeat’s physique horror movie “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood actress who goes to gory extremes to stay youthful, received for greatest screenplay.
“I really believe that movies can change the world, so I hope this movie will be a little stone to build new foundations,” mentioned Fargeat. “I really think we need a revolution and I don’t think it has really started yet.”
Some thought Moore would possibly take greatest actress however that award as an alternative went to an ensemble of actors: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” a Spanish-language musical a couple of Mexican drug lord who transitions to a girl. Gascón, who accepted the award, is the primary trans actor to win a serious prize at Cannes.
“Emilia Perez” additionally received Cannes’ jury prize, giving a uncommon two awards at a pageant the place prizes are normally unfold round.
Finest actor went to Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.” Within the movie, three tales are instructed with largely the identical firm of actors. Plemons, a standout in a number of chapters, didn’t attend the closing ceremony.
Portuguese director Miguel Gomes received greatest director for his “Grand Tour,” an Asian odyssey wherein a person flees his fiancée from Rangoon in 1917.
“Sometimes I get lucky,” shrugged Gomes.
The Digital camera d’Or, the prize for greatest first characteristic throughout all of Cannes official choices, went to Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand,” starring “The Worst Person in the World” star Renate Reinsve. Tøndel is the grandson of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actor Liv Ullman.
In the course of the transient awards ceremony, Lucas was to be given an honorary Palme d’Or. In the course of the pageant, Cannes gave the identical tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime manufacturing facility Studio Ghibli.
