American director, NJ native stunned after winning top prize at Cannes

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a intercourse worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Movie Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.

Baker approved the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, observing in the viewers at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday.

The win for “Anora” marks a new higher position for Baker, the director of “The Florida Undertaking.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, pursuing “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and past year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Slide.”

“I don’t seriously know what’s going on ideal now,” said Baker.

When “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the competition, its win was a slight shock.

Lots of expected possibly the light Indian drama “All We Picture As Light” or the Iranian movie “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” to win.

Both equally of those movies also took home prizes.

It wasn’t the only surprise of the closing ceremony, while. In advance of George Lucas was offered an honorary Palme d’Or, his previous friend and in some cases collaborator Francis Ford Coppola appeared to current it to him, reuniting two of the most pivotal figures of the last 50 %-century of American moviemaking.

“All We Imagine As Mild,” about sisterhood in fashionable Mumbai, received the Grand Prix, Cannes’ next-best honor.

Payal Kapadia’s 2nd attribute was the very first Indian in levels of competition in Cannes in 30 many years.

The jury awarded a exclusive prize to Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a drama made secretly in Iran.

Days in advance of the film’s premiere, Rasoulof, facing an 8-calendar year prison sentence, fled Iran on foot.

His film, which incorporates real footage from the 2022-2023 demonstrations in Iran, channels Iranian oppression into a loved ones drama.

The Cannes crowd satisfied an psychological Rasoulof with a lengthy standing ovation.

Coralie Fargeat’s body horror movie “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood actress who goes to gory extremes to keep on being youthful, gained for most effective screenplay.

“I definitely think that movies can alter the world, so I hope this movie will be a very little stone to develop new foundations,” said Fargeat. “I seriously consider we require a revolution and I do not believe it has actually begun still.”

Some considered Moore may just take very best actress but that award rather went to an ensemble of actors: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” a Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord who transitions to a female.

Gascón, who accepted the award, is the to start with trans actor to win a big prize at Cannes.

“Emilia Perez” also gained Cannes’ jury prize, giving a uncommon two awards at a competition where prizes are typically spread about.

Greatest actor went to Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.”

In the film, a few tales are advised with largely the very same organization of actors. Plemons, a standout in a number of chapters, did not attend the closing ceremony.

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

“Sometimes I get lucky,” shrugged Gomes.

The Camera d’Or, the prize for most effective very first attribute across all of Cannes formal selections, went to Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand,” starring “The Worst Individual in the World” star Renate Reinsve.

Tøndel is the grandson of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actor Liv Ullman.

All through the brief awards ceremony, Lucas was to be provided an honorary Palme d’Or.

Throughout the competition, Cannes gave the same tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime manufacturing unit Studio Ghibli.