The critically acclaimed film “Anora” tells the story of Ani, a strip dancer who meets the son of an oligarch. Due to his youthful indiscretions, the boy marries Ani a few days later – much to the dismay of his parents, who do everything they can to change this. The fast paced film is a mix of comedy and drama and great cast, unexpected twists and lots of comedy. At Cannes, the film was already considered a modern version of the blockbuster “Pretty Woman”.
Gerwig spoke of an “incredibly human film”. It’s a film that “captured our hearts, made us laugh, gave us endless hope, broke our hearts and never lost sight of the truth,” explained the Hollywood director. “That’s been my only goal as a filmmaker for the last 30 years,” Baker said. “So I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” the 53-year-old joked on stage.
Baker dedicated her award to “all sex workers.” Baker said she hopes her films will help reduce the stigma surrounding sex work. “It’s an unfair stigma from my point of view and it baffles me because it’s our oldest business, but nothing has changed in the way the industry is perceived. The last four or five films I’ve done have been about the sex industry.
The second most important award of the festival, the Grand Jury Prize, went to Indian director Payal Kapadia’s film “All We Imagine as Light”. Frenchman Jacques Audiard won the Jury Prize for his composition “Emilia Perez”. Director Mohammad Rasuloff, who recently fled Iran, won the Special Jury Prize for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” The film uses the tensions in a family to tell the story of the protests in Iran following the death of a young Kurdish woman, Zina Mahsa Amini, in September 2022.
This year the best actress award was shared by four women who acted in “Emilia Perez”. In addition to pop star Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Bass were also honored, as was Carla Sofia Gascon, the first transgender person to receive an award at Cannes. The film tells the story of a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender surgery and later seeks to atone for his crimes.
American Jesse Plemons won the best actor award for his performance in “Kinds of Kindness” directed by Giorgos Lanthimos. The best director award went to Portuguese Miguel Gomes for “Grand Tour”. The award for best screenplay went to French director Coralie Forget. Your film “The Substance” deals with images of beauty in a serious way. The director thanked his lead actress Moore on stage Saturday evening: “The film is about women and what more women in the world need to experience.”
There is no Austrian film in the running for the Palme d’Or this year. However, young Austrian director Mo Haraway’s film “The Village Next to Paradise” was up for the award in the prestigious “Un Certain Record” category. A story about a family in Somalia set against the backdrop of difficult daily life in this East African country, the script was also attributed to Haraway, an autograph artist born in Mogadishu who later fled to Austria – however, it was empty. The award ceremony was held last Friday evening.
