‘Anora’ Wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes (Complete Winners List)

The hype out of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, for those far-flung and on the ground, tells one story: This was among the weaker lineups in recent memory.

Sure, huge stories broke out of the festival, from Francis Ford Coppola’s distribution push for his self-funded, decades-in-the-making passion project “Megalopolis” to Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof fleeing his home country after being sentenced to eight years in prison, finally making it to Cannes with his new film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” This journey inspired the jury to award him and his film a Special Prize (Prix Spécial).

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Elsewhere in the official selection, Un Certain Regard already handed out its prizes on Friday from a jury led by Xavier Dolan and including Maïmouna Doucouré, Asmae El Moudir, Vicky Krieps, and Todd McCarthy. Among the top winners were Roberto Minervini (“The Damned”) and Rungano Nyoni (“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”) tying for Best Director, “L’Histoire De Souleymane” (Jury Prize), and “Black Dog” (Un Certain Regard Prize). But Saturday’s ceremony marks the announcement of the festival’s main prizes, including the Palme d’Or.

This year’s Cannes wasn’t without its potential crises, with rumors of a French #MeToo scandal heightening and a possible labor action by Cannes employees. Alas, the show went on, and these circumstances didn’t impact the programming. But — largely due to last year’s strikes impacting production and release dates — 2024 Cannes fare hasn’t yet yielded a breakout on the level of “Anatomy of a Fall,” which won the 2023 Palme before later winning an Oscar. One of the festival’s biggest shocks came with Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” a body horror satire that won Best Screenplay and should be a hit once MUBI releases the film theatrically.

“Emilia Pérez” from Jacques Audiard seemed to steal the show, picking up the Best Actress award for the entire ensemble, as well as the Jury Prize. Meanwhile, Payal Kapadia — who won Cannes’ Golden Eye Award for documentary in 2021 for “A Night of Knowing Nothing” — also stunned audiences with her new film “All We Imagine as Light.” Her competition premiere marks the first Indian film in 30 years to contend for the Palme and her Grand Prix win marks the first time in almost 90 years since a film from India won that award. However it was Sean Baker’s “Anora” that took the Palais by storm, receiving a rousing standing ovation, as well as some of the fest’s highest marks from critics, and ultimately receiving the top prize of the Palme d’Or. Neon has acquired the film and will likely bring it to other festivals this year for a big awards push, similar to what they did with last year’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.”

With a jury led by Greta Gerwig alongside the likes of Lily Gladstone, Ebru Ceylan, Eva Green, Nadine Labaki, J.A. Bayona, Pierfrancesco Favino, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Omar Sy, this year’s awards presentation was streamed via Brut for viewers around the world, in French on Youtube and with English translation on their Facebook page, at 6:45 p.m. local time and 12:45 p.m EDT.

Here’s the list of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival winners:

Palme d’Or: “Anora”

Grand Prix: “All We Imagine as Light”

Jury Prize: “Emilia Pérez”

Special Prize (Prix Spécial): “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammed Rasoulof

Best Actress: The Ensemble of “Emilia Pérez”

Best Actor: Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness”

Best Director: Miguel Gomes, “Grand Tour”

Best Screenplay: “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat

Camera d’Or: “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel

Camera d’Or Special Mention: “Mongrel,” Chiang Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin

Short Film Palme d’Or: “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” Nebojša Slijepčević

Short Film Special Mention: “Bad for a Moment,” Daniel Soares

Golden Eye Documentary Prize: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” and “The Brink of Dreams”

Queer Palm: “Three Kilometers to the End of the World”

Palme Dog: Kodi, “Palm Dog”

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