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Cannes Film Festival 2024: the Palme d’Or to Anora by Sean Baker
Vita gazette – Director Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or at the festival with his film Anora. Payal Kapadia won the Grand Jury Prize for the film All We Imagine as Light, while Jacques Audiard received the Jury Prize for Emilia Pérez, starring Selena Gomez. Jesse Plemons won the Best Actor award for his performance in the film Kinds Of Kindness by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos.
This year, 22 films competed for the Palme d’Or in the main competition, where American director Greta Gerwig was jury president. Paolo Sorrentino and Francis Ford Coppola returned empty-handed from the festival, where they competed with “Parthenope” and “Megapolis:” Miguel Gomes won the best director title, defeating heavyweights Francis Ford Coppola, Paolo Sorrentino and Cronenberg. Director Mohammed Rasoulof, sentenced to prison by Iran, was deemed worthy of the special screenplay award for his film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
Surprisingly, Sean Baker’s rom-com Anora won the Palme d’Or. The protagonist is a sex worker in New York. Baker says, “We are all fascinated by this work happening right under our noses, whether we realise it or not.” The second most crucial prestigious award, the Grand Prix, goes to India, which convinced the jury with its All We Image as Light.
The award for best actress is “multiple”: it does not go just to one performer but to the entire cast of Emilia Perez, i.e. Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascòn and Selena Gomez.
Sofia Gascon takes the stage and is moved, cries, and laughs. She knows she’s making history because she’s the first trans performer to be awarded Best Actress. She dedicates the award “to the actors who every day knock on doors that don’t open and to the trans people who suffer because they denigrate us”. Emilia Perez also takes home the jury prize. Women are protagonists for the best screenplay, which goes to Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.
The jury then awards a special prize to the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who escaped prison in his country and is competing with The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The three-hour-long film reconstructs the recent Women, Life, Freedom movement, costing the director an eight-year prison sentence. The very fact that he was in Cannes put him in great danger. For this reason, the jury wanted to honour him and award him the Fipresci award from internal critics. “My people live every day under a regime that has taken them hostage,” denounces the director, who wanted to thank “all the young women whose boundless courage made this film possible”.
Below is the detailed list with all the prizes
Palme d’Or: “Anora,” Sean Baker
Grand Prix: “All We Imagine as Light,” Payal Kapadia
Director: Miguel Gomes, “Grand Tour”
Actor: Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness.”
Actresses: “Emilia Pérez”
Jury Prize: “Emilia Pérez”
Special Award (Prix Spécial): Mohammad Rasoulof, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
OTHER PRIZES
Camera d’Or: “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel
Camera d’Or Special Mention: “Mongrel,” Chiang Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin
Short Film Palme d’Or: “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” Nebojša Slijepčević
Short Film Special Mention: “Bad for a Moment,” Daniel Soares
Golden Eye Documentary Prize: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” and “The Brink of Dreams”
Queer Palm: “Three Kilometers to the End of the World”
Palme Dog: Kodi, “Palm Dog”
FIPRESCI Award (Competition): “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof
FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard): “The Story of Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine
FIPRESCI Award (Parallel Sections): “Desert of Namibia,” Yoko Yamanaka
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Un Certain Regard Award: “Black Dog,” Guan Hu
Jury Prize: “The Story of Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine
Best Director Prize: (ex aequo) “The Damned,” Roberto Minervini; “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni
Performance Awards: “The Shameless,” Anasuya Sengupta; “The Story of Souleymane,” Abou Sangare
Youth Prize: “Holy Cow! (Vingt Dieux),” Louise Courvoisier
Special Mention: “Norah,” Tawfik Alzaidi
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
Europa Cinemas Label: “The Other Way Around,” Jonás Trueba
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “This Life of Mine,” Sophie Fillières
Audience Choice Award: “Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin
CRITICS’ WEEK
Grand Prize: “Simon of the Mountain,” Federico Luis
French Touch Prize: “Blue Sun Palace,” Constance Tsang
GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: Jour2Fête, “Julie Keeps Quiet”
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Ricardo Teodoro, “Baby”
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize (short film): “Guil Sela,” Montsouris Park