This year’s Cannes Film Festival was a roller coaster as it contained plenty of highs and many lows. Was it impacted by the Hollywood strikes? Perhaps. Did the festival end on a strong note overall? Absolutely. While it was probably wishful thinking to believe the festival would match last year’s all-timer which held the world premieres of three eventual Best Picture nominees, this year still contained plenty of surprises and delights. As we do every year at Next Best Picture, we view the Cannes Film Awards as the first official precursor for this year’s awards season. The last three out of four Palme d’Or winners (all NEON titles, by the way) went on to receive a Best Picture nomination. Will that happen again this year?
This year’s In Competition included “All We Imagine As Light,” “Anora,” “The Apprentice,” “Beating Hearts,” “Bird,” “Caught By The Tides,” “Emilia Perez,” “The Girl With The Needle,” “Grand Tour,” “Kinds of Kindness,” “Limonov: The Ballad,” “Marcello Mio,” “Megalopolis,” “The Most Precious Of Cargoes,” “Motel Destino,” “Oh, Canada,” “Parthenope,” “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig,” “The Shrouds,” “The Substance,” “Three Kilometers To The End Of The World” & “Wild Diamond.”
The jury selecting the winners for this year’s In Competition awards included Jury President Greta Gerwig (“Barbie“), Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan (“Winter Sleep”), American actress Lily Gladstone (“Killers Of The Flower Moon“), French actress Eva Green (“Proxima“), Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum“), Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona (“Society Of The Snow“), Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino (“The Traitor”), Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu (“Monster“) and French actor and producer Omar Sy (“The Book Of Clarence“).
Here’s what won the awards at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
In Competition
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
Best Actress: Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón & Selena Gomez for Emilia Pérez
Best Actor: Jesse Plemons for Kinds Of Kindness
Best Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat for The Substance
Special Award: Mohammad Rasoulof for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize: Black Dog by Guan Hu
Un Certain Regard Jury Prize: The Story Of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine
Un Certain Regard Best Director: The Damned by Roberto Minervini & On Becoming a Guinea Fowl by Rungano Nyon (TIE)
Un Certain Regard Performance Prize: Anasuya Sengupta for The Shameless & Abou Sangare for The Story of Souleymane
Un Certain Regard Youth Prize: Holy Cow by Louise Courvoisier
Special Mention: Norah by Tawfik Alzaidi
Honorary Palme d’Or:
Meryl Streep
Studio Ghibli
George Lucas
Caméra d’Or – Armand by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Short Film Palme d’Or – The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević
Cinéfondation
First Prize: Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know… by Chidananda S Naik
Second Prize: Out of the Window Through the Wall by Asya Segalovich & The Chaos She Left Behind by Nikos Kolioukos (TIE)
Third Prize: Bunnyhood by Mansi Maheshwari
Immersive Competition
Colored by Tania de Montaigne, Stéphane Foenkinos, Pierre-Alain Giraud
FIPRESCI Prizes
In Competition: The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof
Un Certain Regard: The Story of Souleymane by Boris Lojkine
Parallel section (first features): Desert of Namibia by Yôko Yamanaka
Critics’ Week
Grand Prize: Simon of the Mountain by Federico Luis
French Touch Prize of the Jury: Blue Sun Palace by Constance Tsang
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film: Montsouris Park by Guil Sela
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Ricardo Teodoro for Baby
Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: Julie Keeps Quiet by Leonardo Van Dijl
Canal+ Award for Short Film: Absent by Cem Demirer
SACD Award: Julie Keeps Quiet by Leonardo Van Dijl
Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award: Universal Language by Matthew Rankin
Directors’ Fortnight Independent Awards
Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film: The Other Way Around by Jonás Trueba
SACD Prize for Best French Film: This Life of Mine by Sophie Fillières
Golden Coach: Andrea Arnold
L’Œil d’or
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by Raoul Peck & The Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (TIE)
Queer Palm
Best Feature Film: Three Kilometres to the End of the World by Emanuel Pârvu
Best Short Film: Southern Brides by Elena López Riera
Prix de la Citoyenneté
Citizenship Prize: Bird by Andrea Arnold
Prix des Cinémas Art et Essai
AFCAE Art House Cinema Award: The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof
Special Mention: All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia
Palme Dog Awards
Palme Dog Award: Kodi for Dog on Trial
Grand Jury Prize: Xin for Black Dog
Best Mutt Moment: Bird, Kinds of Kindness, Megalopolis
Trophée Chopard
Mike Faist
Sophie Wilde
What do you think of the winners? Which of these films are you most looking forward to seeing? Do you think any of these will be in contention for an Oscar nomination later this year? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Twitter account.
