Cannes Daily: Neon Picks Another Winner as 'Anora' Takes Palme D'Or
The indie distributor hits for the fifth fest in a row. Plus: Trans actress shares best actress for first time
Perhaps it’s time to retire the Cannes Film Festival as the official name for France’s annual cinematic smorgasbord — going forward, it might as well be called the Neon Film Fest because for the fifth consecutive year, the American indie production and distribution company took home the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.
This year, the jury, headed by Greta Gerwig, handed the honors to Sean Baker’s Anora, a crowd-pleasing movie about a New York City sex worker that Screen International critic Wendy Ide called “a modern-day screwball comedy.”
Baker, 53, who has built a career by focusing on characters living on the fringes of society in such movies as Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, bowed down to George Lucas, recipient of an honorary Palme d’Or, who presented him with the award. “Oh, my god, this is incredible. I really don’t know what’s happening right now,” he said as he stepped to the mic. Singling out the movie’s star, Mikey Madison, he said, “You’re incredible, thank you for trusting me.” And gesturing toward his prize, he added, “This literally has been a singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years.”
For Neon, founded in 2017 by Tom Quinn and Tim League, its latest Cannes victory caps a remarkable run that includes the past four Palme d’Or winners — last year’s Anatomy of a Fall, 2022’s Triangle of Sadness, 2021’s Titane and 2019’s Parasite. My colleague Katey Rich spoke to Quinn from Cannes about his run and Anova, which he lauded as Baker’s “most accomplished and biggest film to date,” and then called out Madison for her “huge breakout role.”
At this year’s festival, Neon also just picked up the North American rights to Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which was recognized with a special jury prize. The Iranian director, who fled his home country last week after being sentenced to eight years in prison, was welcomed by the audience with a standing ovation in the Grand Lumiere Theater as he stepped on stage.
Netflix found itself in the winners’ circle as well: Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, a Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord seeking gender affirmation surgery proved to be a rare double-winner. It was awarded both the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award. In the case of that actress prize, jury member Lily Gladstone (whom Katey also interviewed for her first Prestige Junkie podcast) announced that it had been decided to award the prize jointly to the film’s four lead actresses — Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez. Gascon, accepting the award, made history by becoming the first trans actress to be so celebrated on the Cannes stage. In her emotional remarks, she dedicated the award to “all the trans people who are suffering.”
The Best Actor Award went to Jesse Plemons, who plays three different characters in Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist triptych, Searchlight’s Kinds of Kindness.
Rounding out the top honors, the Grand Prix — effectively, the festival’s second prize — was presented to Indian director Payal Kapadia’s drama about three women living in Mumbai, All We Imagine as Light.
Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes was named Best Director for Grand Tour, while the Best Screenplay Award was reserved for writer-director Coralie Fargeat for her body-horror tale The Substance, which juror Eva Green described as “bold and beautifully bonkers.” The movie, which Mubi will release, stars Demi Moore, who was present in the audience, as an aging actress attempting to recapture her youth and is, Fargeat said, “about women and what women can still experience in the world.”
The Camera d’Or, which awards the best debut feature through all sections, went to Armand from Norwegian writer-director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, which played the Un Certain Regard sidebar.
Although Francis Ford Coppola’s controversial Megalopolis didn’t win any accolades, Coppola appeared at the closing ceremony to present the honorary Palme d’Or to his old pal Lucas, whom he enveloped in a warm embrace.
And that’s a wrap for the 77th annual Cannes Film . . . uh, make that fifth annual Neon Film Fest.
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Final Screen Jury Grid Leaders
The long-running Screen International Jury Grid is a critical ranking of competition films in Cannes, according to an assembled jury of 12 international film critics, including Screen's reviewers. Click here for today’s grid and story where Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig has scored victory on Screen’s 2024 Cannes jury grid. The Iranian dissident’s film, which didn’t screen until the next-to-last day of this year’s festival, immediately claimed the top spot on the critics’ chart with a score of 3.4, narrowly edging out Anora (which will just have to content itself with the Palme D’Or) and All We Imagine as Light, which were both tied at 3.3.
