by Miranda Murray
CANNES, France — “Anora,” a wildly funny and touching drama about a young exotic dancer who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, on Saturday.
The film by American director Sean Baker beat out 21 other films in competition, including those by respected directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg.
“Anora” continues Baker’s string of sex worker-focused films, including 2021’s “Red Rocket,” which screened at Cannes, and 2017’s “The Florida Project,” starring Willem Dafoe.
While accepting the award he said the win was “dedicated to all sex workers past, present and future”, and also thanked the film’s star Mikey Madison as well as his wife and producer.
George Lucas, famous for “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones,” received an honorary award during the festival’s closing ceremony from his old friend Coppola, whose pet project “Megalopolis” was also in competition.
“I’m just a kid who grew up surrounded by vineyards in the middle of California and made movies in San Francisco with my friend Francis Coppola,” Lucas said at the ceremony.
The Grand Prix, the second-highest prize after the Palme d’Or, was awarded to “All We Imagine as Light”, the first Indian film to take part in the competition in 30 years, about two women living in an apartment and the challenges they face in a male-dominated society.
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who was in Cannes only about two weeks after announcing he was going into exile, was given a special prize for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” about an Iranian court official who becomes increasingly controlling and paranoid as protests begin in 2022.
The musical play “Emilia Perez,” about a Mexican cartel boss’s transformation from man to woman, received double the honor.
The film’s director Jacques Audiard received the Jury Prize on stage, while the Best Actress award was shared between its female stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Carla Sofia Gascón and Adriana Paz.
Jesse Plemons won best actor for playing three very different roles in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist triptych “Kinds of Kindness” — a struggling police officer, a cult member and a man whose every move is controlled by his boss.
The best screenplay award went to “The Substance”, a horror film directed by Demi Moore about the dangers of youth and beauty. Director Coralie Fargeat said she hopes it helps change the standards set for women.
Miguel Gomez won best director for “Grand Tour,” a varied trip through Asia taken by a British civil servant and his fiancée.
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