The 77th Cannes Film Festival ran from May 14 to 25 and the winners were announced on Saturday night at a gala ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, was awarded to Sean Baker's sex worker comedy Anora. Baker went on stage and nervously thanked the jury, and said that he still “couldn't believe it.” The director said that winning the Palme d'Or has been his “singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years.”

He also credited veteran directors Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg as his major inspirations. Baker has come a long way from his iPhone 5s-shot 2015 feature film Tangerine to winning the French film festival's top prize. He's the first American filmmaker to win the award since Terence Malick won for 2011's The Tree of Life.

And the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or goes to…

Jury president Greta Gerwig described Anora as “something that reminded us of a classic, there were structures of Lubitsch and Howard Hawks. It did something truthful and unexpected.”

Anora is the Neon's fifth movie in a row to win the Cannes top prize. It follows last year's Anatomy of a Fall, 2022's Triangle of Sadness, 2021's Titane and 2019's Parasite. With the exception of Titane, all four previous movies were nominated for Academy Awards.

Anatomy of a Fall won best original screenplay for Justine Triet and Arthur Harari out of five nominations. Triangle of Sadness was nominated for three Oscars. Parasite won four Academy Awards out of six nominations, including best picture, best director (Bong Joon Ho), best original screenplay and best international feature.

It may be second, but it's still Grand

The Grand Prix (or second prize) was given by Viola Davis, who made a surprise appearance, to Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. It's the first Indian film to be in the Cannes competition since 1994, Shaji N Karun's Swaham.

Kapadia used her acceptance speech to communicate her solidarity with the Cannes film festival workers who have been fighting for better working conditions. She also showed her red “Sous les écrans la dèche” button, which means “Broke behind the screen” from the collective which represented the festival's freelance workers.

The filmmaker said that “solidarity and empathy” are the values that drive her and gave a shout out to the “many people who work behind the scenes at the festival, they have done a magnificent job, it is thanks to them the festival exists.”

The Special Award went to dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's Iranian political drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The director fled Iran weeks before the festival.

Share and share alike

The Cannes Best Actress award was given to the female stars of Emilia Pérez: Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and the titular lead Karla Sofía Gascón). Gascón is the first trans actress to win at the festival. The movie also won the Jury Prize.

Gerwig said of the win, “Women together — that's something we wanted to honor when we made this award. Each of them is a standout, but together transcendent.”

The Cannes Best Actor prize went to Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness. The film is an anthology which reunited the director with his Poor Things stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. Plemons played three roles in the triptych film: a submissive businessman, a police officer in mourning and a bisexual cult member.

George Lucas received an honorary Palme d'Or for his contributions to the movie industry, from his first film THX-1138, which premiered in 1971 in the festival's Directors' Fortnight to his franchises, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. His old friend and “a big brother and mentor” Coppola presented the award to him.

“I came here to thank you all,” Lucas said.

“I'm just a kid who grew up in the middle of California, surrounded by vineyards and made films in San Francisco with my friend Francis Coppola. So we spent our entire careers in parallel, and in San Francisco in particular. In fact, I’ve never made a Hollywood film as a director. So it’s a great honor to be here. I can tell you that,” he continued.

No clear love… only clear awards

In the run up to the award ceremonies, there were no clear frontrunners. Very few movies were universally loved by critics, with the exception of the awardees All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Even Coppola's Megalopolis, which starred Adam Driver, with its 10-minute standing ovation, was both panned and celebrated. While Emilia Pérez was hailed by the audience as a masterpiece with its 11-minute standing ovation, the critics weren't entirely charmed.

Even Palme d'Or winner Anora, beloved by US critics, was dismissed by Europeans as too mainstream for the festival. Andrea Arnold's Bird, with its seven-minute standing ovation, was both praised and panned in equal measure.

Coralie Fargeat's body horror submission The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, with its nine-minute standing ovation, was also called a masterpiece but at the same time dismissed as unoriginal. David Cronenberg's The Shrouds, which received a muted three-and-a-half applause, reportedly underwhelmed critics and described as another Cronenberg iteration.

The controversial Ali Abbasi Donald Trump film The Apprentice, which had an eight-minute standing ovation, had the most attention from the media. However, it was dismissed as being overly sympathetic to the former president facing several indictment charges.

The awards certainly don't reflect the standing ovations. Anora didn't even reach the double-digit mark, but it won the top prize. The Grand Prix winner hardly appeared in the headlines with a number related to audience reactions.

However, time will tell how these movies will fare in the box office.

See the complete list of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Awardees (out of 22 in competition) below:

Palme d'Or

Anora, dir. Sean Baker

Grand Prix

All We Imagine as Light, dir. Payal Kapadia

Jury Prize

Emilia Pérez, dir. Jacques Audiard

Best Director

Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour

Best Screenplay

Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Best Actress

Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez; Emilia Pérez

Best Actor

Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness

Honorary Palme d'Or

George Lucas

Special Award

Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Camera d'Or for Best First Film

Halfdan Ullman Tondel, Armand

Palme d'Or for Best Short Film 

Nebojsa Slijepcevic, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent