Palme d’Or: ‘Anora’ wins top award at Cannes Film Festival

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comedian however devastating Brooklyn odyssey a few intercourse employee who marries the son of a rich Russian oligarch, received the Cannes Movie Pageant’s prime award, the Palme d’Or.

The win Saturday for “Anora” marked a coronation for Baker, the 53-year-old indie filmmaker of “The Florida Challenge ” who used iPhones to make his 2015 movie “Tangerine.” It’s additionally, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or received by specialty distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Unhappiness” and final 12 months’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.” Baker accepted the prize together with his film’s star, Mikey Madison, watching within the viewers on the Cannes closing ceremony.

“This, actually, has been my singular purpose as a filmmaker for the previous 30 years, so I’m not likely positive what I’m going to do with the remainder of my life,” mentioned Baker, laughing.

However Baker, the primary American filmmaker to win the Palme since Terrence Mallick in 2011 with “The Tree of Life,” rapidly answered that his ambition would stay to “combat to maintain cinema alive.” The director mentioned the world wanted reminding that “watching a movie at residence whereas scrolling via your cellphone, answering emails and half paying consideration is simply not the best way — though some tech firms would really like us to assume so.”

“So I say the way forward for cinema is the place it began: in a movie show,” mentioned Baker, who devoted his award to all intercourse employees “previous, current and future.”

The awards have been chosen by the nine-member jury led by Greta Gerwig, who informed reporters she was “endlessly modified as a filmmaker due to this expertise.” Gerwig praised “Anora” as having the sensation of classical cinema, saying it felt like an Ernst Lubitsch or Howard Hawks movie that lead in sudden instructions.

Whereas “Anora” was arguably essentially the most acclaimed movie of the competition, its win was a slight shock. Many anticipated both the mild Indian drama “All We Think about As Mild” 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 jolt of the closing ceremony, although. Earlier than George Lucas was given an honorary Palme d’Or, his outdated buddy and generally collaborator Francis Ford Coppol a appeared to current it to him, reuniting two of essentially the most pivotal figures of the final half-century of American moviemaking. Coppola, who earlier within the competition premiered his self-financed sci-fi epic “Megalopolis,” referred to as him his “child brother.” Lucas referred to as Coppola “a giant buddy and a brother and a mentor.”

“I’m only a child who grew up in a winery in Modesto, California, who makes films in San Francisco, with my buddy Francis,” mentioned Lucas. “It’s undoubtedly a special world. I’ve truly by no means made a movie in Hollywood as a director.”

“All We Think about As Mild,” 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.

Afterward, Kapadia urged a large understanding of Indian cinema, saying “there’s superb work occurring in our nation.”

“Not simply Bollywood,” mentioned Kapadia.

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, going through 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 finest screenplay.

“I actually consider that films can change the world, so I hope this film might be a bit of stone to construct new foundations,” mentioned Fargeat. “I actually assume we want a revolution and I don’t assume it has actually began but.”

Some thought Moore, who attended the awards ceremony, may take finest actress. However that honor 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 few Mexican drug lord who transitions to a lady. Gascón, who accepted the award, is the primary trans actor to win a significant prize at Cannes.

“This award isn’t just for me. It’s for all people who find themselves preventing for themselves and their rights,” Gascón informed reporters. “We’ve been insulted, denigrated, subjected to a variety of violence with out even figuring out why. I feel that is award is a lot greater than anybody may think about.”

Explaining the jury’s uncommon alternative of giving finest actress to an ensemble, Gerwig mentioned every performer was a standout, “however collectively they’re transcendent.” “Emilia Perez” additionally received Cannes’ jury prize, giving it a uncommon two awards at a competition the place prizes are normally unfold round.

Finest actor went to Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Sorts of Kindness.” Within the movie, three tales are informed 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 finest director for his “Grand Tour,” an Asian odyssey through which a person flees his fiancée from Rangoon in 1917.

“Generally I get fortunate,” shrugged Gomes.

The Digital camera d’Or, the prize for finest first characteristic throughout all of Cannes official choices, went to Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand,” starring “The Worst Particular person within the World” star Renate Reinsve. Tøndel is the grandson of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actor Liv Ullman.

Final 12 months’s prime winners in Cannes went on to appreciable arthouse success and awards-season runs via the Oscars. That included the Palme winner “Anatomy of a Fall” and the Grand Prix winner “The Zone of Curiosity.”

Whether or not this 12 months’s Cannes lived as much as that lineup was a daily dialog matter throughout the competition. However it was a notably eventful Cannes not only for the a few of the movies — together with “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An America Saga” — that screened however for different surrounding dramas.

After stalling for years in France, the #MeToo motion gained momentum forward of the competition following allegations by Judith Godrèche towards two outstanding French filmmakers. She introduced her brief “Moi Aussi” to the competition.

The wars in Gaza and Ukraine have been generally referenced in press conferences and in subtly symbolic methods on the purple carpet. Pageant employees, searching for higher protections, protested throughout the opening night time ceremony. The Olympic flame, forward of its arrival in Paris for the summer time video games, stopped by. Honorary Palmes have been additionally given to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime manufacturing facility Studio Ghibli.

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For extra protection of the 2024 Cannes Movie Pageant, go to https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival.