For the first time since 2011's The Tree of Life, the Palme d'Or has gone to an American film: Sean Baker's Anora took home the top prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. The win also marks the fifth year in a row that Neon has taken home the coveted honor, following Palme d'Or wins for Parasite, Titane, Triangle of Sadness and Anatomy of a Fall.
"[Anora] was something we collectively felt we were transported by, we were moved by," Greta Gerwig, who served as president of this year's jury, said of their choice. "It felt both new and in conversation with older forms of cinema. There was something about it that reminded us of [the] classic structures of [Ernst] Lubitsch or Howard Hawks, and then it did something completely truthful and unexpected."
Baker's dramedy centers on a young sex worker (played by Mikey Madison) who gets her chance at a Pretty Woman story of her own when she marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Onstage in the Grand Lumière Theater, the filmmaker (who previously helmed 2017's Oscar-nominated The Florida Project and 2021's Red Rocket) dedicated the award to "all sex workers." "All these individual stories may not change the world, but they can help to eliminate prejudice," he said.
"This, literally, has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years, so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my life," Baker said of winning the Palme d'Or. "I do know I will continue to fight for cinema, because right now as filmmakers we need to fight to keep cinema alive... Watching films with others in a movie theater is one of the great communal experiences — we share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear, and hopefully have a catharsis with our friends and strangers. And that's sacred. So, I say the future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theater."
The jury, which included Oscar nominees Lily Gladstone and J.A. Bayona, also awarded Best Actor to Jesse Plemons for his performance in Kinds of Kindness and a joint Best Actress win to the cast of Emilia Pérez. "Separating them would have broken the magic of what they had managed to create," Gerwig explained of honoring Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez.
Meanwhile, George Lucas was presented an Honorary Palme d'Or by his longtime friend and mentor, Francis Ford Coppola. (Meryl Streep was awarded the Honorary Palme d'Or at the start of the festival on May 14, and Studio Ghibli received the same honor on May 20.)
See the full list of 2024 Cannes Film Festival winners below.
GALLERY: 2024 Cannes Film Festival - Premieres, Red Carpets and More
Feature Films
Palme d'Or
Anora by Sean Baker
Grand Prix
All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia
Jury Prize
Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard
Best Director
Miguel Gomes for Grand Tour
Special Award
Mohammad Rasoulof for The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Best Performance by an Actor
Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness
Best Performance by an Actress
Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez in Emilia Pérez
Best Screenplay
Coralie Fargeat for The Substance
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize
Black Dog by Guan Hu
Jury Prize
L'histoire de Souleymane by Boris Lojkine
Best Director
Roberto Minervini for The Damned
Rungano Nyoni for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Best Actress
Anasuya Sengupta for The Shameless
Best Actor
Abou Sangaré for L'histoire de Souleymane
Youth Award
Holy Cow by Louise Courvoisier (1st film)
Special Mention
Norah by Tawfik Alzaidi (1st film)
Caméra d'Or
Caméra d'Or Prize
Armand by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Un Certain Regard
Special Mention
Mongrel by Wei Liang Chiang & You Qiao Yin
Quinzaine des Cinéastes
Queer Palm
Three Kilometers to the End of the World by Emanuel Pârvu
Short Films
Palme d'Or
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević
Special Mention
Bad for a Moment by Daniel Soares
La Cinef Prizes
First Prize: Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know... by Chidananda S Naik
Joint Second Prize:
Out the Window Through the Wall by Asya Segalovich
The Chaos She Left Behind by Nikos Kolioukos
Third Prize: Bunnyhood by Mansi Maheshwari
Palm Dog
Kodi for Dog on Trial, directed by Laetitia Dosch
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