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Source: Deadline
Another Cannes Film Festival has come and gone, and with it, the latest in a long line of films that have been deemed worthy enough of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor, has been announced. As the curtains began to fall on the latest occurrence of an event that’s taken place usually every year since 1946, those in attendance waited eagerly to find out which of the features that were screened In Competition would be fortunate enough to receive this highly coveted prize. There were quite a few notable titles that Cannes jurors could’ve chosen from: Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-making science fiction epic “Megalopolis”, Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy anthology “Kinds of Kindness”, Ali Abassi’s eerily relevant biographical drama “The Apprentice”, and David Cronenberg’s surreal arthouse horror “The Shrouds” among several others that were equally eager to claim Cannes’ top prize for itself. In the end however, this year’s selection of Main Competition jurors, a line-up that included such esteemed names as Lily Gladstone, Omar Sy, and Jury President Greta Gerwig, showed preference to a film that was perhaps smaller in scale compared to some of its biggest competition, a feature made by a filmmaker who was already making steady progress throughout the festival circuit with his past few features. That filmmaker’s name is Sean Baker, and the film he submitted to this year’s Cannes Film Festival is simply referred to as “Anora”.
Described by many as a modern-day Cinderella story, Baker’s romantic comedy-drama stars Mikey Madison (best known beforehand for her roles in “Scream” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) as the titular character, a Brooklyn-based stripper who meets and enters a relationship with Ivan (played by Mark Eydelshteyn), the young son of a powerful Russian oligarch. It isn’t long before the two are wed, and it takes even less time for the latter’s parents to discover their marriage and do everything in their power to end it. As one might expect, various complications arise from forces outside and within Anora and Ivan’s relationship, resulting in all the tension and drama often found in these kinds of situations.
To Cannes jurors, such drama was more than enough to keep them invested, enough for them to name “Anora” the best feature to be screened In Competition at this year’s event. This is not the first instance in which Baker had vied for the Palme d’Or – his 2021 feature “Red Rocket” also competed for the award during that year’s festival (ultimately losing out to Julia Ducournau’s “Titane”) – but it is of course the first time in which Baker has managed to actually win the award (as well as the first time any American film had done so since Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” in 2011). As she announced “Anora” as this year’s Palme d’Or recipient, Gerwig praised it as an “incredibly human and humane film that captured our hearts, made us laugh, let us hope beyond hope and then broke our hearts and never lost sight of the truth”, making it very clear that it was exactly what she and her fellow jurors were looking for in a film that they considered most deserving of this award.
Describing this victory as his “singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years”, Baker enthusiastically accepted the award, claiming to have been blown away by the festival choosing to even screen his film, let alone declare it the best of the best. During his speech, Baker also spoke to the current state of theatrical exhibition within the world of cinema, stating that he wanted to do everything in his power to keep the practice of going to the cineplex to view whatever was being shown their alive and well for as long as possible. “I’m going to fight for cinema because right now as filmmakers we need to fight to keep cinema alive,” Baker said to those present at the ceremony where he accepted his Palme d’Or. “This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition. The world has to be reminded that watching a film at home while scrolling through your phone checking emails and half paying attention is just not the way – although some tech companies would like us to think so. Watching film with others in a movie theater is one of the great communal experiences, we share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear and hopefully have a catharsis with our friends and strangers – and that’s sacred. So I say the future of cinema is where it started, in a movie theater.”
With the Palme d’Or now secured, “Amora” will soon make its way to theaters across the globe and continue to wow audiences the way it did with those in attendance at Cannes, an effort that will be a lot easier to achieve thanks to Neon securing distribution rights to the film (at least in the United States, as Universal’s independent division Focus Features will handle distribution in various international markets). This is actually the fifth Palme d’Or winner in a row that Neon has been fortunate enough to distribute, with the likes of last year’s “Anatomy of a Fall”, 2022’s “Triangle of Sadness”, the aformentioned 2021 film “Titane”, and 2019’s eventual Best Picture Academy Award winner “Parasite” all being acquired by Neon following their wins at the Cannes Film Festival. All of these films have benefited greatly from the attention that Neon has been able to gather for them, and should things play out in a similarly favorable manner, “Anora” should be able to likewise gain a respectable reputation as one of this year’s most notable titles.
“Anora” wasn’t the only film to receive recognition from Cannes jurors though, with Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” even taking both a Jury Prize and a shared Best Actress award that went to its largely female ensemble (one that included Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz, and Karla Sofia Gascon). “The Seed of a Sacred Fig”, meanwhile, earned its director Mohammad Rasoulof a Special Prize, while “Grand Tours” director Miguel Gomes was named Best Director. Jesse Plemons was named Best Actor for his performance in “Kinds of Kindness” (although he was sadly not present to accept the award), and “All We Imagine as Light”, India’s first film to compete at Cannes in years, was honored with the Grand Prize. Like “Anora”, these are all highly commendable works of cinematic art, and their popularity will hopefully continue to grow from here on out.
