Cannes Film Festival 2024: the Palme d’Or goes to Sean Baker for “Anora”

“We have to make films so that they come out in theaters,” said American director Sean Baker while receiving his Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival for “Anora,” which he also dedicates “to all female workers in the sex”.

“I know that I will continue to fight for cinema. We have to fight to make films that come out in theaters. The world needs to remember that watching a film on your cell phone or at home is not the way to watch films,” insisted the 53-year-old American.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that the 53-year-old American, with his youthful appearance, has been selected for Cannes. But this time the Festival tasted the vitality of its thriller which moves from the underbelly of New York to the luxury villas of Russian oligarchs. This 2024 version of Cinderella’s tale is served by a revelation, actress Mikey Madison, in the role of a sex worker.

The actresses of Jacques Audiard’s musical “Emilia Perez”, including transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana, received a joint female performance award. Karla Sofía Gascón, who began her gender transition at 46, is the revelation of this film in which she plays the main role, that of a drug trafficker who feels deeply female and changes gender. She is the first transgender actress to receive this award.

The male actor prize was awarded to the American Jesse Plemons for his role in “Kinds of Kindness” by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos. The actor was not on stage to collect his prize. In the sketch film, Jesse Plemons, 36, is manipulated by a devious Willem Dafoe: he plays an ordinary executive whose daily routine goes up in smoke when his charismatic boss asks him to commit an irreparable act.

George Lucas in the spotlight

Under a standing ovation from the public and the jury, George Lucas, father of the “Star Wars” saga, received the honorary Palme d’Or from Francis Ford Coppola during the closing ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes Saturday.

The director-producer, Hollywood monument, 80 years old, moved to tears on stage, had already been acclaimed on his arrival on the red carpet, before the award ceremony. A montage of extracts from the “Star Wars” saga, with cult lines, “May the force be with you”, “I am your father”, was projected in the room. George Lucas “has forever given the blockbuster its letters of nobility and spectators around the world an unparalleled pleasure,” Cannes officials praised in a press release before the Festival.