Cannes: Sean Baker's 'Anora' wins the Palme d'Or and 'Emilia Pérez' wins two awards

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After two weeks of non-stop cinema, the moment of truth had finally arrived. On Saturday evening, during the gala, the winners of the 77th Cannes Film Festival were announced.

The Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest distinction, went to Sean Baker’s comedy about a prostitute Anora. A nervous and shaky Baker took the stage and thanked the jury, saying he still “couldn’t believe it.” Baker said winning the top prize at Cannes has been “my only goal as a filmmaker for the last 30 years.”

Baker also pointed to Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg, two experienced directors whose films participated in this year’s Cannes competition, as his main inspirations. Baker has come a long way since shooting his 2015 debut Tangerine iPhone4 to win the Palme d’Or. He is the first American director to win the Palm since Terrence Malick Tree of Life in 2011.

Commenting on the jury’s decision, the jury chairman, Barbie doll – said director Greta Gerwig Anora had “something that reminded us of the classics, there were structures by Lubitsch and Howard Hawks. He did something real and unexpected.”

Anora is the fifth consecutive Neon film to win the top prize at Cannes Anatomy of a fall, Triangle of Sorrow, Titanium AND Parasite. Neon has not yet set a U.S. release date for the film, but expects to release it in early October, similar to previous Palme winners, which has proven to be a success both in the awards season and at the box office.

The Grand Prix, presented in a surprise performance by Viola Davis, went to Payal Kapadia Everything we imagine as lightweightthe first Indian film to be presented in competition at Cannes since 1994.

In her speech, Kapadia expressed solidarity with Cannes festival workers who are fighting for better working conditions, and showed her red “Sous les écrans la dèche” button, belonging to a collective representing independent workers at the festival. Workers protested throughout this year’s festival. Kapadia stated that the values that guide her as a director are “solidarity and empathy” and singled out “many people who work behind the scenes of the festival, they did a great job, it is thanks to them that the festival exists” before organizing the Sous les écrans button.

Iranian political melodrama The seed of the sacred fig dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran a few weeks before the festival, received a special award from the jury.

The stars of Jacques Audiard’s Mexican crime musical, in which the gender changes Emilia PerezAdriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and co-star Karla Sofia Gascon won best actress, with Gascon becoming the first trans actress to win at Cannes. Emilia Perez also received the jury award.

“Women together — that’s something we wanted to honor with this award,” Gerwig said. “Each of them is unique, but together transcendent.”

Jesse Plemmons won the Best Actor award for his role in the film Types of kindnessa Yorgos Lanthimos film anthology that reunited him with his film Impoverished things starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. The Civil War AND Power of the Dog the actor plays three roles in Lanthimos’s bizarre, surreal triptych: a docile businessman, a grieving policeman and a bisexual cult member.

Cannes was divisive and there was no clear favorite in this year’s awards. Just a few videos – including Everything we imagine as lightweight AND The seed of the sacred fig – were widely welcomed by critics.

Most divided the audience. Coppola Megalopolisstarring Adam Driver, was both widely panned and selectively praised. Emilia Perez it was hailed by most as a masterpiece, but some critics remained lukewarm.

Baker Anora it was praised by American critics but rejected by many in Europe as too mainstream for competition in Cannes. Andrea Arnold Birda working-class melodrama with fantastical elements, similarly met with almost equal praise and criticism. Substance, directed by French director Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, was hailed as a masterpiece and dismissed as an unoriginal update of David Cronenberg-style body horror. Cronenberg’s modern film Shroudsalso in competition, did not so much divide critics as leave them disappointed, with most describing the film as a muted version of familiar themes from the experienced Canadian director.

A film with Donald Trump directed by Ali Abbasi Studentwhich describes how the former US president was shaped under the watchful eye of ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn (Sebastian Stan plays Trump, Jeremy Forceful is Cohn), received the most attention from the press, especially after Trump’s lawyers sent the filmmakers a cease and desist order in an attempt to prevent the film from being sold in Usa. However, Abbasi’s rather conventional biographical approach, and what some considered an overly sympathetic approach to Trump’s early years, was not well received by some critics.

One filmmaker everyone can agree on is George Lucas, who received an honorary Palme d’Or at today’s ceremony for his contributions to cinema, dating back to his first feature film, THX-1138which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes in 1971, to star Wars AND Indiana Jones franchise. Lucas received the honorary Palme d’Or from his elderly friend Coppola, whom he called an “older brother and mentor” after accepting the award.

“I came here today to thank you all,” Lucas said. “I’m a kid who grew up in the middle of California, surrounded by vineyards, and made movies in San Francisco with my friend Francis Coppola. That’s why we spent our entire career in parallel, especially in San Francisco. I’ve never actually done a Hollywood movie as a director. That’s why it’s a great honor to be here. I can tell you that.

The full list of winners is as follows: