Palm d’Or for “Anora” by Sean Baker, what to remember from the unexpected winners of Greta Gerwig’s jury

As Jean-Louis Aubert sang, “That’s it, it’s over”, the 77th Festival awarded its Palme d’Or to the American film by Sean Baker “Anora” which few festival-goers expected at the top of the podium.

What some appreciated as a great edition, this 77th Cannes Film Festival closed on Saturday May 25 with a prize list which rewarded eight films out of the twenty-two feature films in competition. The Palme d’Or has returned to Sean Baker for Anora, the story of an escort girl with whom a billionaire falls in love. A surprise for many, even if the director was already in competition in 2021 with Red Rocket. A look back at a list which also highlighted the French Jacques Audiard with two awards, and Coralie Fargeat, or the Indian Payal Kapadia.

If parity was not yet there, since out of twenty-two filmmakers four women were in the running, they marked this 77th Cannes Film Festival, two of them finding themselves on the prize list.

The Palme d’Or goes to “Anora” by Sean Baker, a woman’s story

Presented by an American, George Lucas, to his compatriot Sean Baker, the ultimate award for world cinema distinguished Anora, a modern Cinderella who hangs out in a club, with whom a Russian oligarch falls in love. When it was screened, the film turned out to be pleasant, but did not leave a resounding impression, even if some people already felt the wind coming. The jury confirmed them, creating the surprise of a rather unexpected Palme d’Or. A consecration for Sean Baker, an iconoclastic director whose original, skillful and light touch deserved to be distinguished.

The Grand Prix distinguishes “All We Imagine as Light ” by Indian Payal Kapadia

The Indian director wins the second most important prize in the list, which is in some ways the jury’s favorite. This second film follows All night without knowing, screened in 2021 at the Quinzaine des filmmakers, where it competed for the Caméra d’or, as its first film. HASll We Imagine as Light evokes the quest for independence of two women who find themselves in a seaside resort with the objective of expressing their quest for desire in a patriarchal society. A revolutionary feminist discourse in India, which must have played a role in the choice of a jury chaired by Greta Gerwig.

Jacques Audiard receives the Jury Prize for “Emilia Perezfavorite of festival-goers

While the entire Croisette was buzzing with the title of Jacques Audiard’s film, a certain disappointment could be seen on the face of the director, already selected seven times in competition, winner of the Palme d’Or in 2015 for Dheepanand the Screenplay Prize for A very discreet hero in 1996. The jury prize for Emilia Perez rewards a film on transsexuality, where a lawyer helps the leader of a cartel to change his sex to disappear from the radar.

The directing prize awarded to “Grand tour” by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes

This is one of the surprises of this 77th Cannes Film Festival which distinguished Great tour for its staging alternating black and white and colors, as well as different image formats. Miguel Gomes received the Palm Dog in Cannes in 2015, which rewards the performance of an animal in a film, for Taboo. The director was also at the Quinzaine des filmmakers in 2021 with Journal of Tûoa. Located in Burma in 1917, Great tour sees a bride searching across Asia for her future husband who ran away on the day he was to marry her. Miguel Gomes underlined when receiving his prize how rare Portuguese cinema was at Cannes, apart from the regular presence of the late Manuel de Oliveira, who died in 2015, at 107 years old.

The Special Jury Prize distinguishes “The Seeds of the Wild Fig Tree” by Mohammad Rasoulof

Regularly at Cannes, where he twice won the Un Certain Regard Prize, Mohammad Rasoulof could only find himself on the prize list, both Seeds of the fig tree savage illuminated the competition and to which many observers awarded the Palme at the end of the screening. Film against the Mullahs’ regime that the director fled to present his film at Cannes, Wild fig tree seeds is a splendor of incredible audacity where an investigator who lost his service weapon suspects his wife and daughters of having stolen it. A powerful metaphor with the rhythm of a thriller about an uncompromisingly repressive and dictatorial Iran. Magnificent, our Palm.

A collective female performance prize awarded to the four actresses of“Emilia Perez” by Jacques Audiard

It was one of the other surprises of this 77th festival, when the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda announced the Best Actress Prize awarded to the three actresses in the film Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon and Zoe Saldana. A second distinction for the film by the French director, while such a collective prize is extremely rare in the history of the Festival. Two great awards, with the Jury Prize, which counterbalances the virtual Palm awarded to the film by numerous festival-goers and critics on the Croisette.

The Best Actor Award goes to Jesse Plemons for his performance in “Kinds of Kindness” by Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay Award for The Lobster in 2015, and honored with the same award in 2017 for The Death of the Sacred Deeras well as the Un Certain Regard Prize in 2009 for Canine, Yorgos Lanthimos is once again distinguished this year with the Male Actor Prize awarded to his actor Jesse Plemons. The actor is rewarded for his performance in Kinds of Kindness, a film which has three distinct stories with the same actors. After having distinguished himself by his sophisticated images and his art of direction, the director plays here with a complex narration, where his actors play different roles, delighting his fans, and always chatting, here perhaps a little least, his detractors.

The Screenplay Prize honors “Substance ” by French director Coralie Fargeat, under the American flag

Substance strongly impressed the Cannes public. A violent and bloody fantasy film, its storyline sees a late-career television star (Demi Moore) addicted to a product that rejuvenates her. She becomes Sue (Margaret Qualley), but exceeding the prescribed dose, the consequences of the treatment become nightmarish. Original in its subject and its narrative progression, as well as its interpretation, with a remarkable Demi Moore in her first part, Substance also shines with its remarkable staging which would have deserved to be distinguished.

The Golden Camera distinguishes “Armand” by Norwegian director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

A transversal award which covers all the Festival selections (Competition, Un certain regard, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week), the Caméra d’or honors a director who signs his first film. This year it was awarded to Norwegian director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for Armand, screened at Un certain regard. In the film, an incident in a high school causes the parents of two students who disagree in reporting the facts to be summoned. Adults find themselves disturbed to the point of dizziness.