Cannes Film Festival: Anora wins Palme D’Or

After 11 days of an exceptional edition, the Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes, chaired by American director, screenwriter and actress Greta Gerwig, surrounded by Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, as well as Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino, Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu and French actor and producer Omar Sy, presented its winners’ list among the 22 films presented in Competition this year.

Sean Baker’s New York-set romantic dramedy Anora has scooped the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. This marked Baker’s second time in the competition after Red Rocket, and tonight’s win amounted to the realisation of what Baker said has been his “singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years.”

Anora is shot by cinematographer Drew Daniels and stars Mikey Madison as a stripper from Brooklyn who transforms into a modern Cinderella when she meets the son of a Russian oligarch. Complications arise when his parents find out and try to get the marriage annulled.

Announcing the Palme d’Or this evening, Cannes jury president Greta Gerwig said, “This particular film, this incredibly human and humane film that captured our hearts, made us laugh, let us hope beyond hope and then broke our hearts and never lost sight of the truth.”

Baker in his acceptance said he was “shaken” and “still in disbelief” that the festival “invited our little baby to the ball.”

He continued: “I’m going to fight for cinema because right now as filmmakers we need to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition. The world has to be reminded that watching a film at home while scrolling through your phone checking emails and half paying attention is just not the way — although some tech companies would like us to think so. Watching film with others in a movie theatre is one of the great communal experiences, we share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear and hopefully have a catharsis with our friends and strangers — and that’s sacred. So I say the future of cinema is where it started, in a movie theatre.”

Before the top prize was awarded, George Lucas was presented with an Honorary Palme d’Or by longtime collaborator Francis Ford Coppola.

Other winners this evening included two prizes for Jacques Audiard’s lauded Emilia Perez which took a shared Best Actress nod for its female ensemble of Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez as well as the Jury Prize. The film garnered among the longest standing ovations when it was presented last Saturday.

Exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was given a Special Prize for The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Grand Tour‘s Miguel Gomes was named Best Director.

–

Feature Films

Palme d’or

ANORA
Sean Baker

Grand Prix

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
Payal Kapadia

Jury Prize

EMILIA PÉREZ
Jacques Audiard

Best Director

MIGUEL GOMES
for Grand Tour

Special Award

MOHAMMAD RASOULOF
for The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Best Performance by an Actor

JESSE PLEMONS
in Kinds of Kindness directed by Yórgos Lánthimos

Best Performance by an Actress

ADRIANA PAZ
in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard

ZOE SALDAÑA
in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard

KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN
in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard

SELENA GOMEZ
in Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard

Best Screenplay

THE SUBSTANCE
Coralie Fargeat

Short Films

Palme d’or

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT
Nebojša Slijepčević

Special Mention

BAD FOR A MOMENT
Daniel Soares

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard Prize

BLACK DOG
by Guan Hu

Jury Prize

L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE
by Boris Lojkine

Best Director Prize ex-aequo

ROBERTO MINERVINI
for The Damned

RUNGANO NYONI
for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Best Performance by an Actress

ANASUYA SENGUPTA
in The Shameless

Best Performance by an Actor

ABOU SANGARÉ
in L’Histoire de Souleymane

Youth Award

HOLY COW
by Louise Courvoisier
1st film

Special Mention

NORAH
by Tawfik Alzaidi
1st film

Caméra d’or

ARMAND
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Un Certain Regard

Special Mention

MONGREL
Wei Liang Chiang & You Qiao Yin

La Cinef

First Prize

SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW…
Chidananda S Naik

Joint Second Prize

OUT THE WINDOW THROUGH THE WALL
Asya Segalovich

THE CHAOS SHE LEFT BEHIND
Nikos Kolioukos

Third Prize

BUNNYHOOD
Mansi Maheshwari