Sean Baker’s Anora scoops the Palme d’Or at Cannes
- CANNES 2024: The Grand Prix has gone to India’s Payal Kapadia, two awards to Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard, and other accolades to Miguel Gomes, Coralie Fargeat and Mohammad Rasoulof
After quite a variable edition, with a healthy hike in quality during the second week, the competition jury (chaired by Greta Gerwig) for the 77th Cannes Film Festival has given the Croisette a breath of fresh air by handing the Palme d’Or to the thrilling Anora by Sean Baker. The US filmmaker has thus prevailed on his second time participating in the competition, after Red Rocket in 2021. He also partook in Cannes back in 2017, in the Directors’ Fortnight, with The Florida Project.
This spirit of rejuvenation was also very present with the Grand Prix being handed to India’s Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], her feature-length fiction debut after the highly popular documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing [+see also:
film review
interview: Payal Kapadia
film profile] (Golden Eye Award at Cannes in 2021 after being screened in the Fortnight).
The third big winner at this edition was Emilia Perez [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by France’s Jacques Audiard, which took home two prizes: the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award, which in turn became an ensemble prize for the cast (Spanish trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón, US-Dominican thesp Zoé Saldaña, the USA’s Selena Gomez and Mexico’s Adriana Paz).
The jury also demonstrated its sound judgement by handing a highly deserved Best Directing Award to Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes for Grand Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Pa…
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] (marking his first time taking part in the Cannes official competition after having had five films screened in the Fortnight). The remainder of the winners’ list smiled upon US thesp Jesse Plemons (Best Actor Award for his turn in Kinds of Kindness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos) and France’s Coralie Fargeat (Best Screenplay Award for her movie The Substance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). In addition, a Special Award served to single out the German-French production The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof.
Lastly, it’s worth pointing out that the Caméra d’Or jury (chaired by actress Emmanuelle Béart and artist-filmmaker Baloji) plumped for Armand [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
film profile] by Norway’s Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (presented in Un Certain Regard), and a Special Mention went to Mongrel [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Chiang Wei Lang and Yin You Qiao (screened in the Fortnight, and a co-production involving Taiwan, Singapore and France).
Here is the full list of winners:
Palme d'Or
Anora - Sean Baker (USA)
Grand Prix
All We Imagine as Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Payal Kapadia (France/India/Netherlands/Luxembourg/Italy)
Jury Prize
Emilia Perez [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Jacques Audiard (France)
Best Director
Grand Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Pa…
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile] - Miguel Gomes (Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China)
Special Award
The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran/Germany/France)
Best Actress
Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz - Emilia Perez
Best Actor
Jesse Plemons - Kinds of Kindness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Ireland/UK/USA)
Best Screenplay
The Substance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Coralie Fargeat (UK/USA/France)
Caméra d'Or
Armand [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
film profile] - Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (Norway/Netherlands/Germany/Sweden)
Special Mention
Mongrel [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Chiang Wei Liang and You Qiao Yin (Taiwan/Singapore/France)
Palme d'Or for Best Short Film
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent - Nebojša Slijepčević (Croatia/France/Bulgaria)
Special Mention
Bad for a Moment - Daniel Soares (Portugal)
(Translated from French)
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