Sean Baker’s “Anora” wins the Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honor

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, won the prize Cannes Film Festival’The highest award, the Palme d’Or.

Baker accepted the award alongside his film’s star, Mikey Madison, who was watching from the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony on Saturday. “Anora’s” victory marks another highlight for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It is also, remarkably, the fifth consecutive Palme d’Or won by independent distributor Neon, after “Parasite”, “Titanium”, “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall” .

“It’s literally been my goal as a filmmaker for 30 years, so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” Baker said with a laugh.

But Baker, the first American filmmaker to win the Palme since Terrence Mallick in 2012 with “The Tree of Life”, quickly responded that his ambition would remain to “fight to keep cinema alive”. The 53-year-old director said the world needs a reminder that “watching a movie at home while scrolling on your phone, answering emails and half-paying attention is just not the way to do it.” solution, even though some tech companies would like us to think so.”

“So I say the future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theater,” Baker said.

Although “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its victory came as a slight surprise. Many expected the sweet Indian drama “All We Imagine As Light” or the Iranian film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” to win. Both of these films also won awards.

But that’s not the only shock of the closing ceremony. Before George Lucas received an honorary Palme d’Or, his old friend and sometimes collaborator Francis Ford Coppola appeared to present it to him, thus bringing together two of the most significant figures of the last half-century of American cinema.

“All We Imagine As Light,” about brotherhood in modern Mumbai, won the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second highest honor. Payal Kapadia’s second feature film is the first Indian in competition at Cannes in 30 years.

The jury awarded a special prize to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” by Mohammad Rasoulof, a drama secretly produced in Iran. A few days before the film’s premiere, Rasoulof, threatened with an eight-year prison sentence, fled Iran on foot. His film, which includes real footage from the 2022-2023 protests in Iran, transforms Iranian oppression into a family drama. The Cannes public welcomed an emotional Rasoulof with a long ovation.

Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood actress who goes to extremes to stay young, won best screenplay.

“I truly believe that films can change the world, so I hope this film will be a small stone to build new foundations,” Fargeat said. “I really think we need a revolution and I don’t think it’s really started yet.”

Some thought Moore might win best actress, but that award instead went to an ensemble of actors: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” a comedy Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord in transition. to a woman. Gascón, who accepted the award, is the first trans actor to win a major prize at Cannes.

“Emilia Perez” also won the Cannes jury prize, awarding two rare prizes at a festival where prizes are usually spread out.

Best Actor went to Jesse Plemons for “Kinds of Kindness” by Yorgos Lanthimos. In the film, three stories are told with largely the same company of actors. Plemons, notable in several chapters, did not attend the closing ceremony.

Portuguese director Miguel Gomes won best director for his “Grand Tour,” an Asian odyssey in which a man flees his fiancée from Rangoon in 1917.

“Sometimes I get lucky,” Gomes said with a shrug.

The Caméra d’Or, the prize for best first feature film among all official Cannes selections, was awarded to Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand”, starring Renate Reinsve, the worst person in the world. Tøndel is the grandson of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actress Liv Ullman.

During the brief awards ceremony, Lucas was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. During the festival, Cannes paid the same tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime factory Studio Ghibli.