Sean Baker’s Anora wins Cannes Film Festival’s top prize

Anora was selected by a jury led by Barbie director Greta Gerwig out of a Cannes Competition line-up of 22 films which included features by Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg and Paolo Sorrentino. Baker’s previous films include the 2021’s Red Rocket and 2017’s The Florida Project starring Willem Dafoe.

Cannes’ second highest prize, The Grand Prix, was awarded to Payal Kapadia’s feature All We Imagine As Light, marking the first time an Indian director has won the prize.

The jury awarded a special prize to Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which the director made secretly in Iran. Shortly before the film’s premiere in Cannes, Rasoulof fled Iran after receiving an eight-year prison sentence.

Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film The Substance, starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood actress who goes to extremes to remain youthful, won the best screenplay prize.

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, a musical about a Mexican cartel boss who transitions from male to female, won two - the jury prize and the best actress prize for its stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon and Adriana Paz.

Jesse Plemons was named best actor for his role in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness.